Médecins Sans Frontières - Cambodia – New hope for patients with hepatitis C (INT)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF195599

Date taken / Date Recorded 01/05/2017 12:00 AM

Country Cambodia

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Todd Brown

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) Advertising Campaign, External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 3m33s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 365.85 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist CAMBODIA
MSF has been delivering treatment to patients with hepatitis C in capital city Phnom Penh since October 2016.
Of the over 10,000 people already screened at the MSF clinic, almost one-third have tested positive to the virus.
Long queues are common at the clinic run by MSF in the hepatology department at Phnom Penh hospital, with the team seeing as many as 100 patients a day. As the only facility in Cambodia delivering free screening and treatment for hepatitis C, patients come from all over the country to consult.

EK SREANG (en langue locale)
It took me 3 and a half hours to get here from Kampong Thom. I took a motorbike taxi from the bus station.

This man found out he was infected with the hepatitis C virus over 10 years ago. The disease has progressed to such an extent he’s had to stop working. With no money coming in, it was impossible for him to benefit from the new and radically improved drugs now available — direct acting antivirals that are highly effective but prohibitively expensive. With diagnosis and treatment costing the equivalent of six times the average monthly wage, people who earn less simply can’t afford them.

EK SREANG (en langue locale)
51:31: But my son told me the drugs are so expensive” 51:46: We’re really poor, we can’t afford them.

Given patient numbers and the extremely high price of diagnosis and drugs, the MSF team has to prioritise treatment for those with the greatest risk of developing severe and fatal forms of the disease.

EK SREANG (en langue locale)
When I got the result of the liver scan, they told me it was stage 4 (the most advanced stage). So, I’ll be starting treatment soon.

In post-war Cambodia, the critical state of the health system led to numerous cases of infection. Up until 2000, Cambodians contracted the hepatitis C virus from poor sterilization practices.
By the end of April, the team had already provided 900 patients with treatment. Given the extent of the needs, MSF is developing a treatment model for the Ministry of Health to roll out across the country.

DR THERESA CHAN, MSF (in Englis
The majority of our patients are pretty poor, so this is a hardship for them to have to come all the way to Phnom Pehn to get treated for hepatitis C, but they are doing it. Ultimately that’s probably the tip of the iceberg. There’s probably more patients in those areas who haven't attempted to seek care so far away.

But the programme’s success depends on more than just provision of care. A battle must be waged on another front — the exorbitant price charged for direct acting antivirals by laboratories and drug patent holders.

MICKAEL LE PAIH, country representative, MSF (in English)
What’s the point for these big pharma to put together so many resources to bring two molecules that are very effective against HCV, if it’s at the end to prevent, through the pricing policy, to prevent the patients to have access to it?

Agreement must be reached on a fair price for drugs so essential to the survival of hundreds of thousands of people.

DR THERESA CHAN, MSF (in English)
I saw a man yesterday who said to me, “I know these medicines are so expensive”. He held up his bottle and he said “I dropped one on the floor the other day and it was like I dropped my heart”. So I think people feel it deeply. I think they value it deeply to have the opportunity to be treated.