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Just 3 per cent of people infected with hepatitis
C are treated each year, despite it being curable,
says a new report from the Hepatitis C Trust.
The virus is ‘grossly under-prioritised’ by health
services, warns
The uncomfortable truth: hepatitis C in
England
. Half of the estimated 160,000 people living
with hepatitis C remain undiagnosed, it says, with up to
£22m spent on emergency hospital admissions for
‘potentially avoidable’ complications in 2010-11 alone.
Deaths and admissions for hepatitis C-related end-
stage liver disease and liver cancer, meanwhile, have
almost quadrupled in the last 15 years.
As the virus affects ‘the poorest in society’ the trust
is calling for it to be made a major health inequalities
issue by Public Health England, local authorities, the
NHS and commissioning groups, with measures to
encourage case finding by drug services, prisons, GPs
and councils. Earlier this year the charity warned that
just a quarter of local authorities were aware of how
many people in their area had the virus (
DDN
, April, page
5). ‘Has [hepatitis C] been ignored and under-prioritised
because most of the people living with, and dying from,
the virus are from the most marginalised, vulnerable,
deprived groups of society?’ says the document.
The charity also wants to see ‘improved access to
sterile drugs paraphernalia’ and action to step up the
treatment of current injecting drug users to ‘reduce the
pool of infection’, while more public awareness work is
also needed to reduce stigma and encourage testing.
Other recommendations include that peer-to-peer
awareness and support programmes be made
available in all drug treatment centres, ‘opt-out’ testing
be introduced in all prisons and that local referral
pathways and support mechanisms are developed to
‘ensure that everyone who is diagnosed is successfully
referred to specialist care’. The government is still to
publish its national liver strategy, four years after it was
promised, the report adds.
‘There must be no more excuses for the rising tide
of deaths from hepatitis C,’ said the trust’s chief
executive, Charles Gore. ‘It is a preventable and
curable virus, yet huge numbers of people still remain
undiagnosed and a mere 3 per cent of patients are
receiving treatment each year.’ Instead of allowing the
virus to ‘continue to take the lives of the poorest
fastest’ it could be effectively eradicated in England
within a generation, he stated. ‘To do this we must
diagnose and offer care to everyone, regardless of
their geographical location or background.’
See news focus, page 6
The UK’s high level of young people
not in employment, education or
training (NEETs) – particularly the
long-term unemployed – constitutes
a ‘public health time bomb waiting to
explode’, according to the chair of a
major review of Europe-wide health
inequalities, Sir Michael Marmot.
The World Health Organization
and ICL Institute of Health Equality
(IHE) review calls for action to
address the immediate causes of
inequity within and between
countries, including alcohol
consumption. ‘Effective strategies go
beyond providing information and
include taxation and regulation,’
says
The review of social
determinants and the health divide in
theWHO European region
.
‘We are failing too many of our
children, women and young people
on a grand scale,’ said Marmot. ‘I
would say to any government that
cares about the health of its
population: look at the impact of
their policies on the lives people are
able to lead and, more importantly,
at the impact on inequality. Health
inequality, arising from social and
economic inequalities, are socially
unjust, unnecessary, and avoidable,
and it offends against the human
right to health.’
Report available at
www.euro.who.int
COCA REVIEW
A report commissioned by the All-Party
Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform is calling
for a review of the illegal status of the coca leaf
under the UN along with proper exploration of the
potential medical and economic benefits of the
crop. ‘One of the most cruel consequences of the
“war on drugs” has been its impact on the lives of
coca growers in South America,’ said group chair
Baroness Meacher. ‘The illegality of coca leaf under
the UN conventions has stifled research into the
potential for coca leaf farmers to earn a legitimate
livelihood from their produce.’
Coca leaf: a political
dilemma? at www.undrugcontrol.info
SHOULDERING RESPONSIBILITY
A breakdown of the roles and responsibilities of
directors of public health has been produced by the
Department of Health’s public health policy and
strategy unit. ‘Local authorities must take the action
that they decide is appropriate to improve the health
of the people in their areas – it is not the job of
central government to look over their shoulders and
offer unnecessary advice,’ says
Directors of public
health in local government: roles, responsibilities and
context.
Available at
www.gov.uk/government/publications/directors-of-
public-health-role-in-local-authorities
AGING DEBATE
There is still a gap between alcohol age limits in
Europe and the age ‘that is advised from a medical
point of view’, as brain development continues until
the mid-twenties, according to a new EU study. Most
EU countries have an age limit of 18, although a few
have 16 or 17 and three use an age limit of 20 for
stronger drinks.
Eyes on ages: a research on alcohol
age limit policies in European member states
collects
good practice and relevant priorities from across the
continent.
Available at ec.europa.eu
EXPLORING OPTIONS
Public Health England should develop a youth social
marketing programme to ‘engage young people
around exploratory behaviours’ such as alcohol and
drugs, according to the chief medical officer’s annual
report Our children deserve better: prevention pays.
The report uses ‘exploratory’ rather than ‘risky’
behaviours ‘in order to be fair and destigmatise’.
Document at
www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-medical-
officers-annual-report-2012-our-children-deserve-
better-prevention-pays
EDGY DRAMA
The Outside Edge Theatre Company has set up a
new drama group for women in recovery. The group
will meet every Friday afternoon from 15 November
at North Westminster Drug Project in London, and
attendance is free.
For more information email
cathy@edgetc.org
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| November 2013
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
NEWS IN BRIEF
Disadvantaged young ‘a public health time bomb’
Hepatitis C ‘grossly under-
prioritised’, warns charity
SPEAKING OUT:
The recent
Feminism in London
conference
featured art created by women who had been through
substance use, pornography and other difficult situations.
‘Wandering along the corridor of a substance misuse
treatment centre, I noticed the incredible art work on the
walls,’ said conference project manager Lisa-Marie Taylor. ‘The
pictures were the most powerful I had seen.’ Inspired, she
arranged for a selection of artworks to be displayed at the
conference and for the artists to attend. ‘I hope that they
realise what a valuable contribution they made to the day,’
she said. ‘Hundreds of people saw their portrayals of
addiction – the raw painful truth of substance misuse, and the
hope of recovery.’
www.feminisminlondon.co.uk