Thousands living with chronic Hepatitis C in North West

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To mark World Hepatitis Day (Thursday 28 July), the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has released its annual hepatitis C report which estimates that 0.4 per cent of the UK population have the disease.

In the North West, this means that at least 22,000 people are living with chronic hepatitis C infection and the region has consistently had the greatest number of diagnosed cases across England since 1999. 

Figures released today show a cumulative total of 19,810 diagnosed cases of hepatitis C in the North West between the years 1995 to 2010 (the total for England is 85,565 diagnosed cases).

Hepatitis C is often called a ‘silent disease’ because some people have the infection for a long time without symptoms. This means many more people may have the disease than have been diagnosed so far. People who may have been infected include current or former injecting drug users (even those who injected drugs only once or twice in the past), people who received blood transfusions before September 1991 or blood products before September 1986 in the UK; or who had tattoos, medical or dental work abroad where unsterile equipment may have been used.

Dr Evdokia Dardamissis, NW Regional Lead for Hepatitis with the Health Protection Agency advises: “If people think they may have been exposed to the virus, it is important they contact their GP and request a test.

“A simple blood test is all that is needed to find out if they have the infection. Tackling undiagnosed hepatitis C infections by increasing awareness and encouraging people to come forward for testing could have a major impact on the number of people suffering needlessly from liver disease in the future.”

“There is currently no vaccine to protect against hepatitis C but simple measures such as using sterile injecting equipment and not sharing personal items like toothbrushes and razors will minimise people’s chances of being exposed to it. For people who have become infected, drug treatment has become more effective in recent years.

In the North West data show the number of 15 to 24 year olds who have been tested has increased from 3,427 in 2005 to 5,337 in 2010 and the numbers testing positive for hepatitis C has decreased from 3.0 per cent to 1.0 per cent. This is good news but injecting drug users remain the key risk group and the proportion testing hepatitis C positive among this group is the highest in the country (65 per cent in the North West compared to 49 per cent in England).

Dr Dardamissis, said: “The decrease in young people testing positive is encouraging as most new infections are acquired via injecting drug use which often begins in late adolescence and early adulthood, but we cannot be complacent.

“The decrease can be in part attributed to the ways in which organisations across the North West are effectively working together to improve services for injecting drug users.”