Nurse Anne-Marie Magny Dusablon, left, and Dr. Lanice Jones are trying to improve understanding and treatment of hepatitis B among clients at the Calgary Refugee Health Clinic. (Jennifer Lee/CBC)
A Calgary health clinic for new Canadians is trying a new tactic in the fight against hepatitis B, a disease that is often misunderstood and untreated among its clientele.
More than 80 clients at the Calgary Refugee Health Clinic — which provides medical care to newcomers for two years after they arrive in the city — have been diagnosed with hepatitis B.
But most of those people are not getting all the care they need because they don’t understand how serious an illness it is, said Dr. Lanice Jones, a physician at the clinic.
So instead of referring its patients to a separate clinic at Foothills Hospital, the refugee clinic has established an in-house program to provide intensive followup and education tailored for the new Canadians.
“Sixty-six per cent have been lost to followup. they are not getting the blood work and the ultrasound that are recommended. they have fallen through the gaps,” she said.
Hepatitis B is a contagious liver disease that can be spread through sexual contact or needle sharing.
“It’s not unusual, after we’ve explained everything two or three times, when we see them down the road — maybe on a fourth or a fifth visit — to ask them what they understand about hepatitis. And it’s absolutely not clear to them at all,” said Jones.
Part of the challenge is convincing patients that they can be infected with the disease despite having no symptoms. for many new Canadians, the idea of visiting a doctor when they feel healthy is strange, Jones said.
“They only used to access physicians or health care in their countries of origin when they were very, very sick,” Jones said.
Other challenges include language barriers and, for some newcomers, a lack of transportation.
But it is important that patients be made to understand the seriousness of hepatitis B, said Anne-Marie Magny Dusablon, a nurse at the clinic.
“If you do not provide that education to those patients, well, they can transmit that disease to somebody else,” she said.