www.thetruthabouthepc.org.uk
saving lives from
contaminated blood since 2004
Helpline 07958 558510
The Cover Up of Testing for HCV
The Cover Up of Testing for Hepatitis C
With the admission in 1995 that 0.93% of the UK population or some 525,000 people had Hepatitis C infection. One would expect a Health Service to mass warn and test people that a deadly carcinogenic virus was infecting them to the tune of 5 times the size of our HIV epidemic. At £3 pounds a test and £100,000 a liver transplant or Hepatitis C motored death it would have been extremely cost effective to warn the 2 to 4 million recipients of risky blood transfusions and products. Globally other developed nations rushed to warn their citizens with a Stop, Caution, Get Tested Campaign. they tested millions of patients in France, Canada, US to find a actual number for the healthcare infected. Yet here nearly 30 years after the disaster became obvious we still have almost no GP's or messages requesting those at risk to get tested.
There is an extraordinary difference when there is a desire to test for an epidemic rather than cover it up. With HIV even though it is infecting 5 times less people, we test a huge amount, we incentive GP's to test every adult quite often, we know exactly how many Gays, Africans, heterosexuals have it. We understand the need to save money by stopping people being diagnosed and progressing to illness and death and infecting others. Yet with the 5 times more common Hepatitis C virus after running national helplines I have never yet heard from a NHS infected Hepatitis C contaminated blood survivor who was told you are at risk of HCV from the NHS so we are testing you. All are diagnosed by chance 10 20 30 40 years after the event. Sadly all too often because of the signs of liver disease manifesting.
When tested UK recipients of Blood or Blood Products from before 1991 have always had a 1 - 2.6% infected rate a 1 in 40 - 100 risk. Even the NHS dream happy guess is they are 1 in 370 -500 infected, yet there is no warning or testing to find and save these people. Yet imagine you wake up after a night of passion and your partner says they have HIV. Think of how warned and programmed you are to get a test done. Millions and millions have been spent making you immediately ask for a blood test, almost every citizen with such a risk would urgently get themselves tested and be in a bit of a panic for several weeks for confirmation of safety. Yet with NHS contaminated blood being up to 50 times the risk most patients have been left completely unaware of the need for a test to be safe.
See below the UK NHS chart showing how a one night stand with HIV is about a 1 in a 1000 risk of infection and ask yourself why a admitted 1 in 370 HCV risk from contaminated blood has never been cause for a single poster campaign in 25 years.
