The PQWCHC Hep C Team is in partnership with the Toronto Community Hepatitis C Program (TCHCP), a community based, client-centered collaborative care model which provides Hep C supports to individuals who have had difficulty accessing the mainstream health care system. The Hepatitis C program offers education, testing and treatment.
We help ensure that people from priority populations are aware, diagnosed, linked to care, and supported to successfully complete treatment, maintain good health, and avoid reinfection. We provide client-centred, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive care, including harm reduction services, such as opioid poisoning response training, naloxone and harm reduction kit distribution.
Languages of Service:
- English
- Interpretation service available if needed
- Hep C is an infection of the liver caused by the hep C virus.
- Over time, the virus can cause liver scarring and injury, which can lead to severe conditions like cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer.
- The virus is passed blood to blood through breaks in the skin or in the lining of the nose and mouth.
- Treatment cures over 95% of people with Hep C !!
- Treatment for hep C is usually simple: taking 1-3 pills once daily for 8 to 12 weeks. Hep C medications now carry few side effects, and our team is here to help you manage any concerns you may have with starting and completing treatment.
- Getting tested is the first step !
Most people with hep C don’t know they have it. You can have hep C for many years before you get symptoms or feel sick. Everyone should be tested !
Activities with a higher risk of hep C:
- Sharing drug use equipment (needles, cookers, filters, washes, glass pipes, or straws for snorting drugs)
- Getting a tattoo or piercing with shared or poorly sterilized equipment
- Sharing personal hygiene items like razors or nail clippers with someone with Hep C
- Receiving a blood transfusion in Canada prior to 1992, or receiving a blood transfusion in a country where the blood supply isn’t screened enough
- Hep C isn’t spread easily by sexual contact, but certain sexual practices can a higher risk, like condomless anal sex, or sex when you already have another infection.
If you’ve never been diagnosed with hepatitis C, we can screen for Hep C in 5 to 20 minutes using a drop of blood from a finger prick. If this test is positive, or you know you’ve had hepatitis C in the past, we will collect blood to check for an active infection.