Hepatitis C rates falling, prison study finds
GettyHepatitis C infection levels are falling in a region, a prison study suggests.
Prof Stuart McPherson, of the Newcastle Liver Unit and his team, looked at rates of active hepatitis C infections in new arrivals in three prisons in Durham and Northumberland between 2017 and 2025.
The team found that the number of positive tests fell from 9.3% to 3.8% in this period and McPherson said this reflected increased testing for the infection, which can cause liver disease and cancer, in not only prisons but also community settings such as hospitals.
McPherson said infection levels seemed to be falling in north-east England's wider population and "we're making good progress".
Hepatitis C levels are about 10 times higher in prisons than among the general public, because the infection is commonly transmitted via blood-to-blood contact through sharing needles which is more common in the prison population, McPherson said.
He said he and his team went into North East prisons more than a decade ago and had been shocked by the lack of testing and treatment for the infection.
He also said the infection could be easily treated, but people had to be tested first.
In 2016 prisons in the North East became some of the first in the country to test all prisoners on arrival unless they opted out and the rest of the country now does the same, the professor said.
"I think in the North East we have been ahead of the curve," he said.
The study looked at new arrivals to HMP Durham, HMP Northumberland and HMP Low Newton in Durham.
He said he believed Hepatitis C rates in this population had fallen for two key reasons.
The first was that some new arrivals may previously have been in prison and would have been previously tested and treated for the infection.
He also said others may have been tested and treated in community settings which had also improved in recent years.
'Eradication by 2030'
In drug centres across the region and A&E departments including Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and the James Cook Hospital, in Middlesbrough, everyone is tested, he said.
McPherson said the prison study was a "good barometer" for infection rates across the entire region.
He said he believed it was "very likely" that England would achieve the World Health Organization's (WHO) target of 2030 to eradicate the disease.
But he believes the remaining hurdle was to find those who do not know they had it - he estimates about 60,000 people in England.
"It's harder to find someone who might have caught the infection at a party 30, 40 years ago where they injected just once," he said.
He urged people to contact their GPs for a test if they believed they could be at risk.
