Posted: 11-Nov-2005 << BACK
Portraits highlight 'hidden' infection Nov 11 2005 Birmingham Post
An exhibition of giant photographs of people with hepatitis C has been unveiled in Birmingham's Victoria Square to raise awareness about the virus. Helen Gabriel spoke to an expert about those at risk...
Just one glance at the three metre high portraits on display in Victoria Square is evidence that hepatitis C sufferers come from all walks of life. But while more than 200,000 people in England are estimated to be suffering from the potentially fatal virus, 80 per cent do not know they have it.
The photographs, of people from across the country, were taken by photographer Michele Martinoli, who has herself been successfully treated for the virus. She said: "There is a social stigma around the disease caused by lack of awareness. It's important that we bring hepatitis C out of the shadows to get people to face up to the illness in the same way we did with HIV in the 1980s and 90s."
The photographs are on display in Birmingham today as part of an awareness campaign to support the Government's Hepatitis C Action Plan for England, which aims to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C.
The virus is usually spread by the transfer of blood from person to person. Those at risk include people who have injected drugs and, less commonly, people who had a blood transfusion before screening for hepatitis C was introduced in 1991, those who have had unprotected sex with someone who has it, or people who have had tattoos or body piercings where unsterile equipment was used. Hepatitis C can also be passed from a mother to her baby, before or during birth.
Dr David Mutimer, consultant hepatologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, said: "We are pleased that this awareness event has come to Birmingham. We know that the majority of people with hepatitis C are unaware that they have it, and raising awareness through events such as these is essential so that people can come forward to be tested.
"We hope this exhibition will encourage people to think about if they may have put themselves at risk of infection in the past. We must let them know that there is help available to diagnose hepatitis C and that effective treatment is available." He added: "If I think back to 1989, when tests to diagnose hepatitis C became available, it was quite exciting if you had a patient with it because it was a new and interesting condition. Now we believe that up to 0.5 per cent of the population has it."
Dr Mutimer is currently treating more than 1,000 patients for the virus in Birmingham, one third of whom are from the city's Asian population. He is concerned that this is one group of people who are at risk but who are largely unaware of the condition. He said: "It's important to get a message across to the Asian population because a lot of people from that community were brought up in places like India or Pakistan, where medical practitioners at the time were still re- using needles. There is a problem with singling out an ethnic group, which can be a little frightening. It's a message that often doesn't reach people from those communities, who may be at risk and should be tested." He said the proportion of those with the virus was likely to be much higher in the Asian community. He added: "We need to be imaginative and get the message across in a different way, by going into mosques, and broadcasting on community radio stations."
He said the biggest group of sufferers was IV drug users, even if they had only experimented once, several decades ago. "It is very common that I will see someone who injected once or twice in the 70s, then 30 years later for some reason they will have a blood test and be diagnosed, " he said.
He added it was unlikely people who had had a blood transfusion before 1991 had contracted the virus, because only one in 10,000 donors were infected before screening. But people who were given Factor 8, to treat haemophilia, before that date were high risk because each treatment came from 10,000 donors.
