A CT facility brings virus treatment directly to patients

It’s a disease that affects more than 2.4 million people across the nation and more than 18,000 people in Connecticut.

And now an organization that treats men who have concurrent addiction and mental health disorders is able to bring treatment for the disease, Hepatitis C, directly to patients.

Through the work of The Southeastern Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., or SCADD, patients at its Lebanon Pines facility will be treated for Hepatitis C on site. The ability to do this treatment there takes away stigma, keeps patients in the program and helps prevent future complications, staff said.

According to Hepvu.org there are 18,300 people in the state living with Hepatitis C, which is a virus that can harm the liver and can be fatal.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls Hepatitis C a “silent epidemic.”

CEO Stacey Lawton said the ability to do the treatment at Lebanon Pines also provides a safe space for men to be introduced to health care again.

“There is a lot of stigma and judgement around substance-based disorders,” Lawton said. “This model with the Hepatitis C treatment provides a safe space for that reintroduction of our folks into the health care system.

“Many of them had not seen a doctor since they were children. Going to a doctor is not easy or fun for any of us,” Lawton said. “To have a safe space for some of the challenges you have faced in your life is really impactful.”

SCADD Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lawrence Peacock said the number of Hepatitis C cases in the nation has been high, but difficult to fully quantify.

“We don’t have real numbers. We have projections,” Peacock said. “There are maybe 2.5 million Americans right now. Some reports have said upwards of 10 million. Depending on who you are talking to — we don’t know. We do know 40 to 50 percent of these people are undiagnosed because a lot of times it’s asymptomatic early on. We have a large population of people in the country.”

“Overall health”

Lawton said Lebanon Pines is the only nonprofit residential substance use provider in Connecticut currently offering the EPCLUSA Hepatitis C treatment protocol.

The male-only facility on a 56-acre parcel in the southeastern part of the state has 98 beds, and recently was at full capacity. The average stay at the facility is 30 to 60 days. There is a full nursing staff on site.

“They are offering all of the services available to our clients at the Pines to aid in their success, not only in their treatment but in their overall health,” Lawton said.

Lebanon Pines nurse manager Ashland Hayes started pushing for the on-site treatment more than a year ago.

“This journey started in October 2022,” Hayes said. “I was in search for the next thing to offer to our clients to reduce any barriers for them to actively engage in treatments at Lebanon Pines.”

The goal was to take away the barrier for men who are confirmed Hepatitis C positive or suspect they are Hepatitis C positive, and to prevent them from leaving because they could not get treatment there, he said.

“Historically, we didn’t have the resources to offer this treatment,” Hayes said. “This was a real distraction for them and weren’t able to get the benefit of our services we were providing here because we couldn’t treat Hepatitis C — but now we can…Now we can screen anybody and treat anybody.”

Peacock said treating the patients “improves their wellness, health and you start to think globally how it affects them as a person.” Patients are screened for Hepatitis C when they enter the facility.

“If you are feeling better, you are more likely to engage in treatment,” he said. “You are more likely to get treated for substance abuse or for some of the psychological stuff that is affecting this population.”

Further, future effects of the viral infection should be a concern, he said.

“Nationally, we look at the impact of liver disease,” Peacock said. “We have about 12,000 dying annually from downstream stuff like liver failure, cancer and it’s even bigger than this — it’s the overall health effects of having hepatitis. It increases your risk for cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, diabetes. Everybody focuses on the liver but when we have treated people for hepatitis, they had overall health benefits because the virus is an inflammatory illness.”

Peacock also said that marginalized groups are disproportionately being hit hard by Hepatitis C.

“There have been (treatment) barriers historically,” Peacock said. “You have to test for antibodies first and having the antibodies for the virus doesn’t tell me if you have the actual virus. So that point of contact, we lose people. We tell them they have the antibodies, but we don’t know if they have the active virus illness. One fourth of the people who have hepatitis will clear the virus. The global impact in much bigger than people realize. It’s gotten the attention of the executive branch.”

President Joe Biden recently proposed a $11 billion plan to eradicate Hepatitis C by speeding up and improving care. The proposal would allow the government to negotiate treatment costs with drug companies.

According to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the rate of acute hepatitis C cases increased 71% from 2014 (0.7 per 100,000) to 2018 (1.2 per 100,000), with two-thirds of cases occurring in persons aged 20–39 years, the age group most impacted by the opioid crisis.

“The medication interrupts the cell cycle of the virus,” Peacock said. “It uniquely targets the virus. It’s amazing we are sitting on a cure and people can tolerate it symptom free.”

Lawton said the facility could now manage it if all of the patients were positive for the virus. The treatment involves a course of pills given over 12 weeks.

“We are well positioned with our nursing team and our medical partnerships to manage that in the case of 100 percent of our population were positive, we could manage it,” Lawton said.

Peacock said it is important to to note that, “we are looking at 95 percent cure rates and maybe even beyond that.

“Here we are as a country, sitting on the ability to eradicate an illness right now if we can get people to engage in this,” he said. “The overall benefit of this isn’t just the long-term health of the individual, it’s for society. We are going to stop the spread with this virus. By treating these individuals and if they were to relapse – and we know relapse happens among this population — we are stopping the spread. That’s the message I don’t think is out there that we have something to cure it and that’s amazing.”

Peacock also noted that, while the cost of Hepatitis C treatment has declined in recent years, it is still very expensive. He said some states have made deals to obtain an unlimited supply of Hepatitis C medication for a set charge.

“If one state can do it, it can happen across the country,” Peacock said. “This is an illness we can cure.”