Positive fears over hepatitis

At least 22,500 North-West residents are estimated to be living with chronic hepatitis C — with the annual cost of treating them now £32million.

The figures are revealed in the Health Protection Agency (HPA) North-West’s annual Hepatitis C report for 2011.

The figure of 22,500 is likely to be an underestimation of the true burden of disease as the “prevalence of hepatitis C in the North-West is high compared with other regions.”

More than 161,000 individuals in England have the disease.

Dr Evdokia Dardamissis, a consultant in health protection, said: “Hepatitis C remains a major public-health problem and one that we are actively addressing.

“If we can raise public awareness, the people who are most at risk can take measures to prevent themselves from becoming infected and those who are already infected can be brought into highly effective treatment programmes.”

Drug-users are at major risk from the disease: while five per cent of people tested for hepatitis C in the North-West between 2005-2010 were positive, 65 per cent of injecting drug users (tested anonymously) last year were positive, only half of whom knew this.