30 January 2008 ThisIsNorthScotland
Patients with hepatitis C infections should be diagnosed and treated as early as possible, a leading public health consultant from the north-east has said.
Dr Maria Rossi, consultant in public-health medicine for NHS Grampian, stressed the importance of targeting the blood-borne virus in its early stages following a first year progress report on the Scottish Government's action plan for controlling hep C, recently released by Health Protection Scotland.
The action plan was launched in September 2006 to improve services aimed at preventing, diagnosing and caring for people with the infection.
There are currently 2,618 known cases in Grampian although many more will be unknowingly infected, said Dr Rossi.
"It is asymptomatic. No one knows when they have been infected. It is often only discovered if patients do not feel well and have a variety of tests done."
An estimated 90% of hep C infected patients in Scotland picked it up by injecting drugs.
Dr Rossi added. "Getting a test for hepatitis C is not a priority for them.
"We are trying to persuade people in at-risk groups to have tests. Obviously we want it to be done with some reason but even if people just dabbled in drugs 20 years ago once then they might have put themselves at risk."
Time and money spent diagnosing and treating early cases would represent major savings, compared to trying to treat a patient whose hep C had developed into a lifelong illness or progressed into liver failure.
Dr Rossi. said: "Hep C is an important issue in Scotland. If we can treat it early we will hopefully have a much healthier population."
By December 2005, Health Protection Scotland estimated that about 50,000 people in Scotland were infected with hep C, half of whom were undiagnosed.
The action plan progress report says that unless measures are taken to combat the illness, hep C cases progressing to liver failure will double between 2005 and 2020.
