Hepatitis C: The silent killer among us

BY MARK HOTTON

Hepatitis C's stigma as a "junkie disease" could be preventing thousands of New Zealanders from getting potentially life-saving treatment.

About 50,000 New Zealanders are infected with hepatitis C, with many infected through unscreened blood transfusions, experimentation with intravenous drugs or by just using a flatmate's razor.

Experts believe only about 20 per cent of those who have the disease are aware they are infected.

Treatment to potentially "cure" the disease is available suppression rates vary from 50 per cent to 80 per cent but access to specialised clinicians and adverse side-effects can deter people from seeking help.

World Hepatitis Day, tomorrow, aims to draw worldwide attention to the one in 12 people living with hepatitis B or C. Organisers hope the global event will target chronic viral hepatitis as an urgent public health issue.

Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Auckland's School of Medicine, Ed Gane, said underdiagnosis meant many people were not identified early enough for treatment.

"People don't know they have hep C and they won't find out and get treated unless there is greater public awareness about getting screened."

The disease is also known as the "sleeping dragon" because it has a long dormancy.

It can take up to 15 years for symptoms to show, but by then irreparable damage can be done to the liver. It is that delay in obtaining the treatment that could be costing lives.

Gane said many people contracted the disease through experimental drug use in their teens or early 20s.

"But because they experimented [once or twice] and they shared injecting equipment, they're left with a lifelong infection," he said. "Most are in their 40s and 50s and don't realise their at-risk behaviour as teenagers exposed them to it."

Only about 2 per cent of those infected underwent treatment each year. Access to the treatment remained a barrier, particularly in smaller centres, and some people can be discouraged by the treatment's side-effects which are similar to those of chemotherapy treatment weight loss, diarrhoea, hair loss and general illness.

Treatment is based on a combination of interferon and ribavirin , taken for either 24 or 48 weeks.

Gane urged people that might have been put at risk to get tested.

Hepatitis C was the main reason people needed liver transplants in New Zealand and was rapidly replacing hepatitis B as the leading cause of liver cancer, he said.

HEPATITIS C

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that infects liver cells.

It is estimated 50,000 New Zealanders have the disease about 25 new patients are diagnosed weekly.

Causes liver inflammation and liver disease, with unusual fatigue the most common symptom.

It can take up to 30 years to develop cirrhosis which can lead to liver failure and is the leading reason for liver transplants in New Zealand.

There is no vaccine, no immunity and no universal cure.

The non-screening of blood products before 1992 meant many people unwittingly contracted it.

As many as 10 per cent of those infected have no idea how they contracted it.

You should be tested if you:

- Received a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992.

- Spent time in prison - rates of infection can be 20 times higher than average.

- Lived in an area of high prevalence such as Egypt or South East Asia.

- Have ever injected street or recreational drugs.

- Have been exposed to acupuncture, tattooing or body-piercing equipment that may not have been clean.

 

- © Fairfax NZ News