As May 20 marks Canada’s first Hepatitis Day, The Canadian World Hepatitis Alliance, a new group formed by affected individuals, their families, and health care professionals, is asking the federal government to develop a preventative strategy against the disease by 2012.
According to the organization, Hepatitis B and C threatens the lives of 600 000 Canadians, and concrete measures must be taken to prevent, treat, and conduct research on the disease.
"Canadians are dying because of inaction and ignorance. For a country that prides itself on a publicly-funded universal health care system, this is unacceptable. We appreciate that the government’s recent announcements provide some recognition of hepatitis C as a national health issue, however, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Hepatitis B has been completely ignored and the hepatitis C funding is woefully inadequate to address the full scope of the issue," says Gary Fagan, President of the Canadian Liver Foundation and Chair of the Canadian World Hepatitis Alliance.