The team of nurses and outreach workers call themselves Mobilizing Access to Services for Hepatitis C or MASH for short and they were in Timmins yesterday to screen residents for the Hepatitis C virus at the Timmins Native Friendship Centre.
“We do Hep C and HIV testing and we support people with Hep C and HIV,” explained Kristina Rancourt Maille, the Hep C Community Coordinator with the Aids Committee of North Bay and Area.
“About 21 percent of Ontario’s population may be infected with Hep C and are unaware that they have it," Rancourt Maille said. “The most common symptoms are flu-like symptoms accompanied with a jaundicing of the skin and the eyes. “
Yesterday 120 people showed up in Timmins to be screened. Everyone who showed up was also treated to a free hot dog.
Education about how Hepatitis C is contracted is vital for learning how to prevent it and also to determine if the flu like symptoms and jaundicing indicate the presence of the virus in a person.
For information on the cause of Hepatitis C click here.
The jaundicing of the skin and eyes indicates that a person’s liver is not functioning properly.
“If they are not educated on how they can contract Hepatitis C then they may be more at risk,” adds Rancourt Maille.
Screening is important because it is hard to determine on your own what the symptoms you have may mean.
“Not everyone who has jaundice or is tired and has flu like symptoms has hepatitis C,” she said.
On Wednesday, the team gave a presentation that was open to the public about Hepatitis C at the Porcupine Health Unit in Timmins and also at the Good Samaritan Inn in South Porcupine.
Today they are in Kirkland Lake.
The team has also visited Chapleau, Wawa, Pic Mobert, and Espanola.
“We will contact anyone who has tested positive,” said Rancourt Maille. “People are welcome to call us for their results if they have been tested.”
Rancourt Maille said it will take about 10 businesses days for the results of the testing to be given.
The group also must report any positive test results to the Porcupine Public Health Unit
The Hepatitis C screening is a public and private partnership funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and a private pharmaceutical company.
“There are many different treatments for those who have been detected with Hep C,” Rancourt Maille said. “And treatment has improved greatly.”
“The old procedure consisted of being injected once a week,” she said. “And that treatment made people sick like chemotherapy.”
“Now it is an easier regime like taking pills once or twice a day,” she explained. “The length of the treatment went down from six months to a year to two months.
For information on Hepatitis C and screen for other communicable diseases please click here.
