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CATIE Expands Hepatitis C Program to Offer Services Nationally

TORONTO, October 6, 2009 – CATIE (The Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange) has signed a 6-month contribution agreement with the Hepatitis C Prevention, Support and Research Unit of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). The agreement will allow CATIE to expand its hepatitis C program to offer services nationally.  As PHAC’s newest national partner in hepatitis C work, CATIE will take on a Hepatitis C Knowledge Transfer and Exchange role that is similar to its national role in HIV knowledge exchange.

Hepatitis C services offered by CATIE include the ongoing maintenance and expansion of the comprehensive bilingual website www.hepCinfo.ca, the hepatitis C toolkit of print resources that are available through the CATIE Ordering Centre at www.catie.ca, and a free and confidential inquiry service that provides hepatitis C information by phone or e-mail in English or in French.

The national program will build on the website and comprehensive toolkit of hepatitis C resources for Ontario service providers that was launched in December 2008, with funding support from the Hepatitis C Secretariat of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada will complement the continuing provincial partnership and enable CATIE to extend much-needed hepatitis C information services beyond Ontario and throughout Canada. Work to expand the program nationally will include identifying resource and information gaps and facilitating information sharing among organizations across the country, building on CATIE’s extensive HIV information exchange experience.

In this first six-month phase covered by the contribution agreement, CATIE will document information on HCV policies, programs and service resources across the provinces and territories and add that information to the HCV website. CATIE will also integrate and promote other hepatitis C resources in an expanded Ordering Centre. CATIE aims to continue to build on this base and expand its collaborative role with other community partners beyond the six-month timeframe, dependent on continued funding.

“The national expansion of CATIE’s hepatitis C program will benefit people and communities across Canada by strengthening an integrated national response to HCV, HIV and other infectious diseases and sexually transmitted infections,” said Laurie Edmiston, Executive Director of CATIE.

An estimated 250,000 Canadians are infected with HCV – the hepatitis C virus. It is estimated that 3,200 to 5,000 people in Canada are infected every year. A growing number of Canadians living with HIV, particularly people who currently inject drugs or formerly injected drugs, are co-infected with hepatitis C. There are more than 5,000 people co-infected in Ontario alone. Service providers have been struggling to provide an integrated response to this growing health challenge. CATIE has played a leadership role in HIV information exchange for 19 years. Through this work CATIE has developed an understanding of the broader context in which HIV, HCV and other infectious diseases and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have evolved in Canada and CATIE has committed to pursue an integrated approach to information exchange about HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs. The national expansion of the hepatitis C program is an important example of how CATIE is implementing this integrated approach.

For more information, please call 1-800-263-1638 or email info@catie.ca.

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