Present in Limoges since Thursday November 28 and until Friday November 29 for the 25th forum of the SOS Hepatitis and Liver Diseases federation, its vice-president Frédéric Chaffraix, 43, discovered in 2004 that he was suffering from hepatitis C, contracted following a blood transfusion at birth. He recovered from it in 2014.
Although not a doctor, this patient became head of the Expert Service for the Fight against Viral Hepatitis in Alsace (SELHVA), at the Strasbourg University Hospital. Interview.
SOS Hepatitis and Liver Diseases has existed since 1996. How has the role of this federation evolved?
“The initial idea of our president Pascal Mélin was to help isolated patients help each other and improve their quality of life and care. These were more particularly patients suffering from hepatitis C, a pathology then shameful and stigmatized, because it was often associated with drug consumption, even if half of the patients were people transfused with contaminated blood.
Regardless of the mode of contamination, things had to be moved forward and the arrival of new treatments in 2014 was a revolution. In just a few months, curing hepatitis C became possible. However, the virus has not disappeared as hoped, it remains present among prisoners, drug users, migrants, in the population with psychiatric disorders…
As for hepatitis B, compulsory vaccination for infants since 2018 in France gives us hope for the elimination of the virus in twenty or thirty years.
We continue to work on these viral hepatitis, but we are mobilized on all liver diseases – especially since being cured of the virus does not mean that the disease has disappeared and that cirrhosis or cancer will not occur – and on prevention of liver cancer which can concern everyone, not just people with alcoholic hepatitis. »
The association is indeed involved in fatty liver or soda disease, which can have dramatic consequences…
“These are metabolic hepatitis, often detected in overweight people, with diabetes and hypertension, linked to our lifestyle and our diet. The challenge is to improve the screening of these diseases to anticipate treatment and avoid deaths, but also to take care of our liver.
For example, we launched “June without added sugars” to raise collective awareness about our consumption of sugar and processed products. Along the same lines, we would like Nutriscore to be made mandatory. »
Is screening for these liver diseases sufficient?
“The liver is the cause of silent diseases. We don’t go to the doctor because our liver hurts. A blood test is required to detect possible liver fibrosis which can be confirmed by a fibroscan at the hospital…
We think about diabetes, obesity, hypertension, but since 2020, we have forgotten the liver, this vital organ. We are calling on public authorities to strengthen the risk reduction policy. But today, with the brakes on spending, prevention must be done with constant means… It is complicated and yet, it is a challenge for the future which will have a cost if it is not taken into account. »
Comments collected by Hélène Pommier
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