Posted: 18-Dec-2006 << BACK
Norwich Evening News - 18 December 2006 by Sarah Hall
People with serious liver disease in Norfolk need more support in their own homes and long-term help, it was claimed today. The call came as it emerged that the number of people living with hepatitis C could more than double. An estimated 5,000 people were living with hepatitis C in 2005 in Norfolk, and it is feared the figure could top 10,000 in under a decade, according to figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
Campaigners think not enough is being done to help combat the disease and that it is not being prioritised as Norfolk Primary Care Trust (PCT) is reckoned to be more than 50m in debt.
Michael Colyer, 55, of Colman Road, Norwich, contracted hepatitis C through NHS treatment he had for haemophilia. He said: I am concerned the disease is not regarded as a priority, and that is worrying. In the past, action plans have been set out so we can make some long-term progress on hep C, but I am worried these will not be laid out now. There doesn't seem to be any money left to fight the disease.
Patients need continuing support in their homes. We have campaigned for screening because 90pc of people with hep C do not know they have got it.
Now we need to provide long-term help for people with the disease, such as getting a mortgage, house insurance and learning to live with the condition.
In June, the Evening News reported how ground-breaking treatment at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital had cured Geoffrey Medler, of North Earlham, who had lived with hepatitis C for nearly 30 years. But thousands of others do not even know they have it.
Peter Brambleby, who is a consultant in public health and honorary senior public health lecturer at UEA, said: The PCT has agreed to work with Mr Colyer and other patients on models of continuing support.
HPA figures showed that an estimated 4,855 people were living with cirrhosis of the liver or serious liver failure in 2005. That figure is expected to rise to 10,090 by 2015. The agency said the latest estimate on the number of adults infected with hepatitis C was about 231,000 in 2003, most of them undiagnosed.
The figures showed the estimated 231,000 people living in England and Wales with hepatitis C were aged between 15 and 59.
Men are more than twice as likely to be infected with the disease - known as the silent killer - as women.
