Hepatitis C blamed as deaths from liver disease soar 60pc

There has been a 60 per cent increase in deaths from liver disease over the past decade but patient services in England’s hospitals are poor, they say.

Liver disease is the fifth biggest killer after heart disease, cancer, stroke and lung disorders, and the number of deaths is rising by about eight per cent per year.

Liver disease killed more than 10,000 people in the UK in 2008, including from causes such as alcoholism, but hepatitis C is a growing contributory factor, according to MPs.

A report from the All-Party Parliamentary Hepatology Group (APPHG), published today, said hepatitis C’s exact contribution to rising mortality was difficult to calculate but was certainly “underestimated” because so few people were diagnosed.

Many of the 250,000 to 466,000 people living with hepatitis C in the UK have no idea they have the disease because it can remain symptomless for many years.

Famous sufferers include Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick, who caught the virus from a blood transfusion she received during the birth of her daughter, actress Pamela Anderson, guitarist Keith Richards and singers Marianne Faithfull and Natalie Cole.

Anyone given a blood transfusion before September 1991 or blood products before 1986 could be at risk of infection. A major route of transmission is people sharing needles for injecting drugs.

Less common ways of passing on the virus include from mother to child before or during birth, unprotected sex and having medical and dental treatment abroad.

People having tattoos, ear or body piercing, acupuncture, electrolysis and semi-permanent make-up are also at risk if unsterile equipment is used.

Sharing razors or toothbrushes also carries a small risk.

The report condemned the wide variation in the quality of patient services in NHS hospitals.

Around 13,000 people are newly-infected every year but only about a third receive treatment which has been shown to cure half of cases, it said.

Success rates with treatment varies widely between hospitals, from just 10 per cent of patients treated to 100 per cent.

Furthermore, the UK’s use of hepatitis C drugs is the second- lowest out of 14 comparable countries.

The report, In The Dark, pointed to a “worrying shortage of basic monitoring in hepatitis C services, such as numbers of patients referred, numbers offered treatment, numbers initiating treatment and treatment results”.

Tory MP David Amess, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Hepatology Group, said: “There is effective treatment available for hepatitis C so there is absolutely no excuse for the death toll to continue rising.”