'SHARED BANKNOTE' HEALTH WARNING TO COCAINE USERS

Experts are warning of a potential "health time bomb" from drug users
snorting cocaine through banknotes, threatening to infect thousands
with hepatitis C.

They fear that the sharing of banknotes by cocaine users will cause
the numbers of those infected with hepatitis C to soar. They are
particularly concerned because eight out of 10 carriers don't know
they have the virus.

The disease is carried through the blood, and users can easily fail
to notice small traces of blood on their banknotes, which are then
passed around a group. Without treatment, hepatitis C can lead to
chronic liver disease.

The Department of Health estimates that there are 200,000 people
infected with hepatitis C in Britain, but the Hepatitis C Trust fears
the number could be much higher.

Charles Gore, the chief executive of the trust, said: "Estimates show
that around 5,000 new cases of hepatitis C are diagnosed every year -
but they are mainly through chance. Because so many are undiagnosed
we can't tell what kind of problem we are looking at. When 5,000
banknotes were tested in London [in 2000], 99 per cent of them had
traces of cocaine on them. That tells us that there is potentially a
massive problem in diagnosis and people's awareness of how easily
hepatitis C can be contracted.

"We are concerned that if more is not done to alert people to the
dangers of sharing, then what is already a big problem risks being
turned into a health time bomb."

Professor Graham Foster, of St Mary's Hospital, London, said:
"Sharing banknotes or straws is a significant risk factor that people
need to be more aware of . Although the risk of contracting hepatitis
C through snorting is lower than through sharing a needle, it is still there."

He added: "We can detect levels of hepatitis C for weeks after it has
been on a surface, [but] infectious levels will only remain for a few
hours, maybe more."

The trust has set up a campaign entitled What Not to Share, and is
asking for donations to mark World Hepatitis Awareness Day today.

THE FACTS

* According to the latest Home Office figures 750,000 Britons take
cocaine every year.

* In an American study last year 4.7 per cent of people who sniffed
or snorted cocaine or heroin tested positive for hepatitis C.

* There is no vaccine for the hepatitis C virus.

* Cocaine costs around UKP30 per gram. According to health charity
Drug Scope it's cheapest in Liverpool and Birmingham.