Big jump in hepatitis C sufferers

[Guest guest]

Big jump in hepatitis C sufferers

The number of people newly diagnosed with hepatitis C jumped 10% in 2006, figures show.

There were 8,346 new cases in England in 2006, up from 7,580 in 2005, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Its report said increased awareness and testing of hepatitis C had contributed to the rise.

An NHS campaign resulted in the doubling of the number of visits to an NHS website (www.hepc.nhs.uk) and a dedicated hepatitis C information line, it added.

Dame Anita Roddick, who died in September aged 64, also raised awareness of the infection, the HPA said. She announced in February that she had contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion in 1971.

Hepatitis C is passed on through contact with infected blood and less commonly through other body fluids.

Symptoms can be mild or even non-existent for many years, meaning it can be decades before people are diagnosed. This has earned it the name the "silent epidemic".

Professor Pete Borriello, director of the HPA's Centre for Infections, said: "The improved public awareness we are seeing for hepatitis C represents a marked change to the position we were in just a few years ago.

"This is good news. The increase in testing and diagnosis of infection will enable more people to gain access to the appropriate treatment and help reduce some of the severe complications of hepatitis that can occur, such as liver cancer.

"However, there is no room for complacency. Despite the increase in awareness and diagnosis of hepatitis C, there is still some considerable way to go if the burden of this infection is to be reduced in the future."

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_FuZQCWx7rQxpb-Qd7BP1R9jnKA