Almost half a million people in the UK are infected with hepatitis C and more than 150,000 of them will die if they are not treated, specialists said yesterday.
Only one in ten people with the virus know that they are infected. Government schemes to tackle the problem are failing, William Rosenborg, the author of a new report, said.
Professor Rosenberg, of the University of Southampton, said: “In France they diagnose five times more than we do, and treat ten times more. UK services are woefully inadequate.”
The virus, caught through contaminated blood, produces few symptoms for years, but after 20 to 30 years around a third of infected people develop chronic liver disease, while others will get liver cancer.
Source
Only one in ten people with the virus know that they are infected. Government schemes to tackle the problem are failing, William Rosenborg, the author of a new report, said.
Professor Rosenberg, of the University of Southampton, said: “In France they diagnose five times more than we do, and treat ten times more. UK services are woefully inadequate.”
The virus, caught through contaminated blood, produces few symptoms for years, but after 20 to 30 years around a third of infected people develop chronic liver disease, while others will get liver cancer.
Source