By Katie Gardner and Dave Lucas, Vital Strategies
People who use drugs are not only at risk of overdose, but also other preventable health problems such as viral hepatitis. Injecting drug use is the most commonly reported risk factor for hepatitis C and roughly 40% of people with recent history of injection drug use are living with this viral infection.
Vital Strategies has partnered with production company Greener Media on “You Deserve a Cure,” a three-and-a-half-minute animated video that provides helpful information about hepatitis C, dispelling myths and promoting prevention and treatment.
Today’s hepatitis C medications are effective and easy to take, with cure rates of more than 95% in cases. Research also suggests that HCV treatment is associated with increased retention in medication for opioid use disorder programs. Despite these positive health outcomes, people with a history of drug use who seek hepatitis C treatment often experience barriers to care, including provider stigma and discrimination. Best practice guidelines clearly state that abstinence from substance use should not be a requirement to receive treatment.
To create the informational video, Vital Strategies and Greener Media sought input from community providers and people with lived experience of hepatitis C infection. “You Deserve a Cure” explores the path to hepatitis C treatment from a patient’s perspective, acknowledging barriers to care while encouraging compassion, understanding, and mutual support.
Hepatitis C, when left untreated, can lead to liver damage, liver cancer and death. When public health strategies are coordinated, people can be reached and engaged into treatment earlier and more consistently. Linking services such as naloxone distribution, access to medications for opioid use disorder, syringe services, safer use supplies and education, and low-barrier HIV and hepatitis C testing and treatment can help to reduce preventable deaths, injury, and the transmission of bloodborne infections.
State agencies and organizations are encouraged to incorporate these videos into training, education and outreach efforts and may add their own branding to the videos if used in this way. The videos are available for free download in both English and Spanish. Our goal is to make accurate, actionable public health information easy to understand and widely usable.