CONGRATS GRADS! F r more ph Fo For photos h t s ffrom om tthe h grad graduation d ation ti n festivities see Section B. Phillip Woolgar/Herald
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THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2012 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Merritt woman fears loss of at-home treament Hospital doses put PIDD patients at risk By Phillip Woolgar THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Rebekah Bowen and 450 other British Columbians suffering from Primary Immunodeficency, are struggling with the B.C. government elimination of a free home care option. Phillip Woolgar/Herald
A Merritt woman says she is devastated by the planned elimination of her at-home treatment of Primary Immunodeficiency Disease, a move she says could endanger the health of 450 British Columbians. Rebekah Bowen has for the past year and a half suffered from the condition that weakens her immune system, requiring weekly doses of Hizentra, a drug that helps fight viruses the average person fends off every day. Her PIDD went unnoticed until November 2010 when she woke up paralyzed from the waist down. She was able to walk three months later, after doctors diagnosed and treated her. But now the at-home treatment she receives from a pilot program out of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver isn’t receiving government backing, the program head said.
Bowen said she just learned that funds will run out in six months. “If we have to get this treatment in the hospital every month, then that is putting us in serious risk of catching viruses,” she said, noting 100 of the 450 people who suffer from PIDD provincewide administer the Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin treatments at home and about 75 per cent of sufferers want the option. Up until five months ago, Bowen visited the Nicola Valley Health Centre to receive monthly doses, a process she said left her weak immune system exposed for up to 14 hours while waiting in the emergency room. But after learning how to administer weekly subcutaneous injections herself, she was safe from possible hospital infections. Dr. Robert Schellenberg is head of the subcutaneous injection program at Saint Paul’s Hospital, which used a chunk of its research money to fund
the subcutaneous injections pilot program starting in May 2009. He recently learned the B.C. Ministry of Health didn’t take on the pilot. The initiative would save the ministry at least $1.3 million over three years, Schellenberg estimated, mostly from personnel costs for administering in-hospital treatment. “I gather someone lower down in the ministry said, ‘Well, they’re not going to do any new provincial project,’” he said. “But [the government’s idea] to have each region have its own nurse trainer makes absolutely no sense.” He said each region would be reluctant to pay for the costs of hiring an employee to train PIDD patients to administer subcutaneous injections. Similar at-home treatments have been initiated internationally to lower the number of patients visiting hospitals while
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