HEPATITIS C CASES STILL RISING

Christchurch: Hepatitis C infections continue to rise despite the needle
exchange programme for drug users, an Otago University Christchurch School
of Medicine study has found.

Cheryl Brunton, from the Department of Public Health, has just published
research that shows one in four injecting drug users in a study group became
infected with hepatitis C over a two-year period.

"Such a high infection rate for this blood-borne virus is a real worry," she
said.

The study, which looked at injecting drug users between 1994 and 1996,
showed the health system in New Zealand needed to "get its act together"
when it came to controlling the spread of hepatitis C among drug users.

Dr Brunton, an expert in the epidemiology of hepatitis C, said the needle
exchange programme was working but was not enough to stop the virus
spreading and was not sufficiently resourced.

She said hepatitis C could not be identified or tested for prior to 1988
and, at that stage, was already at epidemic rates.

Drug user behaviour had changed in the last 10 years but the virus already
had a strong foothold in the drug user community. Injecting illicit drugs
was a "bloody business" and blood could be passed from one user to another
through the tourniquets, filters, water and spoons they used.

New filters and disposable tourniquets had become available and drug users
were being educated about how the disease was transmitted.

It was estimated up to 30,000 New Zealanders were infected with the virus.
Hepatitis C could lead to cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer but the
symptoms were sometimes hard to detect and might not manifest themselves for
up to 30 years.

The emphasis needed to be on preventing young injecting drug users from
getting the virus, Dr Brunton said.

Dr Brunton was also researching the number of deaths from chronic liver
diseases that could be attributed to hepatitis C and B and expected results
around the end of the year.