The Regional Government of Madeira wants to eradicate Hepatitis C in the archipelago by 2030, said Monday the Secretary of Health of the Madeiran executive, indicating that the archipelago currently has 700 cases of this disease identified.
Madeira is included in a Focus 2019 project to eradicate Hepatitis C by 2030″, said Pedro Ramos during his visit to the Hepatitis C detection tent in Funchal.
On the occasion, the Madeiran ruler stressed that Madeira had “the first public hospital included in this international project“, which aims to develop and implement best practices in disease detection to reduce the time between detection, diagnosis and treatment.
The regional secretary also said that this initiative is part of the national program that commemorates World Hepatitis Day, which is celebrated this Thursday, with similar actions planned in Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon, in the coming days.
Pedro Ramos mentioned that annually an average of 100 new cases of Hepatitis C in Madeira and that the Regional Health Service has identified 700 cases, some of which have already completed their treatment, while others are still doing so.
For this reason, the official has indicated that “the objective is to detect people who have this situation of the Hepatitis C virus and be able to quickly start treatment”, referring to “the costs are around 6,000 euros”.
“The numbers are stabilizing” and, since January 2020, about 50,000 tests were carried outadvanced.
Also questioned by journalists about monkeypox, Pedro Ramos reported that Madeira has already received 20 vaccines against the disease, which will be “administered to a person who meets the criteria and has had contact with a case”, confirming that three people have been identified and confirmed infected with this disease in Madeira.
Portugal with 588 confirmed cases of Monkeypox virus infection and first contacts vaccinated
Source: Observadora
