Posted: 5-Jun-2006 << BACK
PembrokeshireTV.com Reporter: Heledd Vaterlaws
Hepatitis C has been highlighted in the media lately due to a recent case of a dental worker in North Wales who was infected with the hepatitis C virus.
The fact that 5,000 people who had been treated by this dental worker had been offered hepatitis B, C and HIV tests was widely reported in the press.
What the reports often failed to explain was that the reason for the HIV and hepatitis B tests was not directly linked to the fact that the worker suffered from hepatitis C. The tests were recommended due to the fact that there is uncertainty whether the correct hygiene procedures had been used when sterilising dental equipment in other words preventing infection from one client to another, rather than infection from the worker to the client.
But the likelihood is that many people who heard the reports will believe that the tests were necessary because a hepatitis C sufferer probably has hepatitis B and HIV too.
According to Charles Gore of the Hepatitis C Trust, misinformation of this sort is increasing the stigma that people with Hepatitis C suffer. You can get away with discrimination of hepatitis C thats not possible for HIV, he said. This is because nobody is standing up for hepatitis C sufferers, and there is no loud patient voice.
The disease, like HIV, is a virus. The highest concentrations of the virus are found in the blood, and can only be passed from one person to another if infected blood gets under the skin or into the bloodstream of another person. The virus primarily affects the liver, and although 20% of sufferers will spontaneously clear the virus from their body, the rest will go on to develop the chronic form of the disease, with resultant liver damage.
Because hepatitis C is so efficiently transmitted by the sharing of IDU equipment (inauterine devices needles), the disease has come to be stigmatised as a drug-addicts' disease. In reality there are a number of ways of contracting the disease, including blood transfusion.
Martin Sheppard, Consultant Microbiologist at Withybush General hospital believes this sort of stigma attaches itself to all sorts of diseases which might be aquired through intravenous drug use.
One of the worrying things about the disease is the estimate that 75% of people who have hepatitis C are unaware that they have it, he said. Eighty-eight cases have been confirmed in Pembrokeshire in the last 7 years, but if estimates are correct the number of people in the county actually suffering from the disease could be anything up to 1,000.
Working alongside Dr Sheppard at Withybush is Dr Vaishnavi, who specialises in liver diseases, and two clinical nurse specialists. Any other support for sufferers in Pembrokeshire is provided by the voluntary sector, and the nearest support group is in Swansea.
It probably isnt enough support, said Dr Sheppard, But very few diseases have sufficient resources available. Demand can always increase, supply cannot.
If the figure of 1,000 people in Pembrokeshire who are carrying the disease without knowing it is accurate, then demand for services looks set to increase. But with Withybush earmarked for a downgrade, will sufferers in Pembrokeshire find themselves with even less support? Its difficult to be specific, said Dr Sheppard, It depends on the nature of downgrade, but it is very likely that HCV treatment would all go up-line, to Carmarthen or Swansea.
The committee of the all-Wales action plan will have to take into consideration the possibility of downgraded local hospitals when assessing the future for patients with Hepatitis C.
Another issue Dr Sheppard hopes the action plan will address is the role of politicians in health. Id like to see less interference by politicians. We now seem to spend more time measuring than doing. The measurement of "performance" is against artificial/arbitrary standards, and these results rarely mean much, he explained.
