Miami INHSU HCV Symposium

Miami INHSU HCV Symposium

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation from Challenging Pathos drops you right into a harm reduction nerd-fest as Marc and Kris unpack their trip to the INHSU Hepatitis C Intervention Symposium in Miami. You’ll hear them chat through what the symposium actually looked like – a mix of doctor-led presentations, small roundtable chats, and very strong coffee – before shifting into the real meat: why people who use drugs still struggle to access hepatitis C treatment.

One line sums it up: providers “base it on their moral or ethical views… it’s up to providers individually to be a dick or not.” Bureaucracy, stigma and pointless hoops keep people from care, even when cures are simple and highly effective. The episode breaks down key interventions like point-of-care (or as they suggest, point-of-contact) testing, dried blood spot testing, and the use of mobile RNA machines.

They contrast the broken status quo with what’s possible: strong linkage-to-care networks like the one they’ve built with Challenges Inc, Prisma Health and local EMS, and Florida’s low-barrier telehealth model for hepatitis C treatment. A visit to the University of Miami’s IDEA Exchange shows what a fully integrated, one-stop harm reduction hub can look like: syringe services, wound care, food, testing, case management and medical students learning directly from people who use drugs.

It’s practical public health with humanity at its centre. Throughout, the chat stays grounded, funny and real – from empanadas and giant iguanas to the hard truth that “stigma is pervasive and it creates barriers, unnecessary barriers.” If you care about overdose prevention, hepatitis C, or just making health care less cruel and more useful, this one’s worth your time. What small barrier could you help remove in your own community?