Posted: 15-Dec-2006 << BACK
The Health Protection Agency hepatitis C report response from The Hepatitis C Trust
LONDON, December 15 -- The Hepatitis C Trust expressed grave disappointment with the latest figures published in the HPAs hepatitis C report today which show a fall in the numbers of newly diagnosed patients in England from 7,993 in 2004 to 7,580 in 2005.
This fall is a major indictment of the first year of the Governments public hepatitis C awareness campaign, FaCe It, which was launched on December 8th 2004 and which is intended to increase the number of new diagnoses. According to the report some 180,000 people remain to be diagnosed which at the current rate will take nearly 25 years. People with undiagnosed hepatitis C are at risk of developing life-threatening liver disease as well as unwittingly infecting others.
Charles Gore, Chief Executive of The Hepatitis C Trust, states The fall in the number of hepatitis C diagnosis is not acceptable. Awareness of the disease needs to be dramatically improved. We warned the Chief Medical Officer in 2004 that the Governments low-key campaign would be ineffective and this has proved to be the case. It must be reassessed at once. We need an awareness campaign of appropriate magnitude to ensure that those at risk get tested before they die wholly preventable deaths. The urgency of this cannot be overstated.
Notes
The Hepatitis C Trust is the only national UK charity devoted to hepatitis C. It is entirely patient-run and provides information, support and representation to all those affected by hepatitis C.
For more information, please contact Raquel Jose on 020 7089 6220 or Charles Gore on 07931 541 743.
