This Army Vet Is Fighting Hep C With Big Pharma’s Help
- As liver infections mount, U.S. funding lags other diseases
- Gilead backs screening, education as it looks for patients
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After shooting meth put her in a Missouri hospital with six days of bleeding, Heather Surface stumbled out into the January cold last year, still drug-addicted, homeless and unaware that she had a dangerous liver infection.
Two weeks later at a rehab center, she met Bruce Burkett, a wispy-bearded Army vet who’s part social worker, part public health crusader, and a boon to drugmakers for his work in finding patients who need costly, powerful treatments for the viral liver infection hepatitis C.