Lethbridge’s London Drugs pharmacy is offering an innovative and potentially life-saving screening program for Hepatitis C.
Assistant Pharmacy Manager, Andrew Kwong says residents can now undertake a simple finger prick test to get checked out for liver-destroying virus. “It is a silent disease. A lot of people can have the infection and not have any symptoms or may not know they even have Hep C. So it’s important they get screened that way.”
Kwong notes the test, called the OraQuick HCV rapid antibody test, is more than 99% accurate at detecting HCV antibodies and provides results in 20 minutes.
Recent guidelines recommend that all Canadians born between 1945 and 1975 get tested for the potentially liver-destroying virus.
Anyone wanting to have the test can call London Drugs and make an appointment. The cost is $24.