NoBlood

Jan B. Wade · #1 (**permalink**) 03-14-2005, 03:54 AM

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/print?id=525678
Hepatitis C Rate May Be Underestimated in UK

Reuters

Feb. 23, 2005 - By Richard Woodman

LONDON (Agence de Presse Medicale) - More than half a million people in Britain may be infected with hepatitis C -- two or three times the official estimates -- a liver disease specialist warned on Wednesday.

William Rosenberg, professor of medicine at Southampton University, told APM he had alerted the Department of Health to his findings, which are based on a new mathematical analysis and are being submitted for publication.

He said the problem with the official estimates was they did not give enough weight to the way hepatitis C infection is clustered in high-risk groups and is virtually non-existent in other groups.

The new model assessed the prevalence of the virus among drug users, prisoners, healthcare workers, blood product recipients and people who had attended sexually transmitted disease clinics. The prevalence figures were then multiplied by the estimated number of people in these groups to give the overall population prevalence.

The results suggest that, as in France, somewhere around 1.2% of the British population may be infected compared with the 0.4% assumed by the UK Health Protection Agency.

"We are seeing twice the number of cases that we would expect if the official estimates were right," said Professor Rosenberg, who also works as a physician at Southampton General Hospital.

He warned that action was needed to prevent a "huge epidemic" of people developing end-stage liver failure and requiring transplantation over the next 20 years.

"The problem is that many people look at these risks and don't think it applies to them," Rosenberg told the Independent newspaper. "But there is a huge cohort of people who 20 or 30 years ago may have dabbled in drugs, even just once at a party, who could be infected.

"They are the ones who could have had the virus for 20 or 30 years now and could soon start developing end-stage liver disease."

So far, only 60,000 chronic carriers have been diagnosed in Britain and only 3,000 are receiving anti-viral therapy.

Last December, the health department launched a 2-million pound (2.9 million euros) campaign to encourage people who may have been exposed to the virus to get themselves tested.

12/03/05
http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/ire...bBP-2fa91M.asp
IBTS sued over delays in notifying three Hepatitis C victims

By Catherine Shanahan and Claire Oâ€™Sullivan
THE Irish Blood Transfusion Service yesterday confirmed it is being sued by three people who tested positive for hepatitis C but who were not informed for a number of years that they had the virus.

A spokesperson said the cases related to a delay in notifying donors who had tested positive for the potentially fatal condition in the Munster region. Confirmation of the three cases comes less than a month after a man who contracted hepatitis C at birth settled his action against the IBTS and the State for â‚¬2m. Contaminated Anti-D blood product was administered to his mother at the time of his birth.

Yesterday, the whistleblower doctor who uncovered the hepatitis C scandal which left well over 1,000 women infected, postponed a planned press conference after she was warned by superiors that she was breaching its code of conduct.

A letter sent from the IBTSâ€™s Dublin office warned Dr Joan Power, regional director of the Munster IBTS centre, that she would breach an internal code of conduct if she held a press conference without the prior approval of the chief executive or a designated IBTS spokesperson.

It warned against â€œthe giving of interviews, statements or any other information connected with the services provided by the serviceâ€ without such sanction.

Dr Power had planned the press conference to outline â€œprofound concernsâ€ she had in relation to the operation of the IBTS. She has been unhappy with the running of the IBTS since she uncovered the hepatitis C scandal in 1994.

Dr Power responded to the warning from IBTS chief executive Andrew Kelly by issuing a statement saying there was â€œdeeply worrying evidence of highly inappropriate external interference with its (IBTS) independenceâ€.

â€œI require immediate confirmation that the intention of your correspondence is not in any way to impede me in either my constitutional rights as an individual citizen or in my advocacy duty as a medical consultant in bringing issues of the most serious concern into the full light of openness, transparency and accountability,â€ she added. A copy of Mr Kellyâ€™s letter has been sent by Dr Power to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) and Health Minister Mary Harney.

In response to Dr Powerâ€™s decision to release correspondence between her and her employers, the IBTS issued a statement saying: â€œWe are aware that a member of staff has issued two items of internal correspondence to the media today. The IBTS has a policy of not responding to any questions about individual staff members.â€

An IBTS spokesperson also confirmed a report examining the delay in notifying donors infected with the virus was presented at the boardâ€™s meeting on Wednesday.

The report revealed nearly 100 blood donors initially tested positive for the virus in the early 1990s but were not informed at the time. The number was later reduced to 34, after further tests were carried out.

NoBlood

UK - Hepatitis C Rate May Be Underestimated in UK