A 42-year-old father who contracted Hepatitis C after injecting drugs has praised a new blueprint for treating the virus that he says “takes away the barriers” to treatment.

Scott MacBlack, from Irvine in Ayrshire, suffered with Hepatitis C for more than two decades until he started on a new treatment – Direct Acting Antivirals – which he says cured him after 12 weeks.

Published this week, the new guide has been hailed as a “game-changer”. Its recommendations include recruiting peer workers who know the local drug culture and introducing nurse-led community services to make it easier for people to access treatment.

Mr MacBlack started taking drugs at an early age, smoking cannabis and talking pills before moving on to drugs like heroin.

He explained: “I wasn’t educated on this kind of stuff and before long I started injecting. It went on for years and I ended up in and out of prison. In my second or third time in prison I was tested for Hepatitis C and it came back positive.

“I was given interferon to begin with, but the side effects made me really unwell. It was horrible and it didn’t cure me. No-one really knew what to do about it, so I lived with hep C for another 20 years.

“I felt stigmatised. Firstly, for using drugs and then also because of my hep C. I couldn’t be truthful about it because people didn’t know much about it back then. I got sent back to prison again and through word of mouth I heard about this new treatment Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs), I didn’t know much about it and was sceptical.

“Finally, I chatted to one of the nurses and decided to go through with it. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.

“I didn’t have any side effects, took one tablet a day for 12 weeks and was cured. It was only after getting rid of it that I realised how big a weight had been lifted off my shoulders with this, both physically and mentally. The weight of feeling stigmatised for my hep C had been lifted.”

Commenting on the recommendations, Mr MacBlack said: “Stuff like this should be happening. It’s getting to the people with hep C and dealing with it directly. It takes away the barriers for people who are using drugs and actually treating them in a way that’s accessible.

“With regards to peer workers, I don’t think there’s anyone better who could be doing this. They can relate and that gives that extra level of support so working hand in hand with professionals, there’s no better way to do this.”

Read more: “Game-changer” Hep C treatment blueprint launched; Global recognition for Tayside hepatitis programme; Drug checking ‘important response’ to record deaths; World first for Tayside in ‘eliminating’ hepatitis C

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