Richard from the British Liver Trust asked me to help him raise money by running the 5k Santa run in December

Over the years my poor liver has taken a serious battering , but now after  6 months treatment and with the help of my Nomad friends I am well again and I am really really pleased.  I would love to give a little back and hope you can help me by sponsoring me.  I will walk/run the 5k with Richard and some of the most amazing friends a person could wish for who I have met since being diagnosed with Hepatits C.   I am very pleased to say I was lucky enough to be diagnosed before irreparable damage was done to my liver and I have received treatment that was successful.  I am now clear of the virus.

 

Hepatitis C (HCV), a virus which is transmitted by blood to blood contact. It causes inflammation of the liver and can lead to life-threatening liver damage. Raising awareness of this potentially life threatening disease is now one of my priorities.  And it could actually save someone's life...HCV has been called 'the silent killer' as many people who contract it don't have any symptoms until they arrive at the point where their liver has been severely damaged, sometimes to the extent of developing cirrhosis and even liver cancer.

  Are you No 12?  I was...

Because shockingly one in 12 people worldwide are living with either chronic hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis C . While this is far higher than the prevalence of HIV or any cancer, awareness is inexplicably low and the majority of those infected are unaware.

GET TESTED

An estimated five out of every six people with chronic hepatitis C are unaware of their infection.
   The number of people with HCV-related end stage liver disease continues to rise.  Between 1996 and 2005 the number of new cases increased by 100% and is predicted to increase to 2,670 by 2015. ⁶  
 The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that approximately 3% of the world’s population are infected with hepatitis C. 170 million people are chronically infected and 3-4 million are newly infected each year. 
  In 2007, only 29% of diagnosed patients were treated with NICE approved antiviral therapy. ⁸
The number of people with HCV-related cirrhosis is expected to more than double to 8,280 by 2015 ⁹
The future burden of hepatitis C on the NHS is estimated to reach up to £8 billion in the next 30 years.

 

 

http://hepcnomads.co.uk/

http://britishlivertrust.org.uk/

 

What are the risk factors?

Because hepatitis C is so efficiently transmitted by the sharing of IDU equipment, the disease has come to be stigmatised as a drug-addicts' disease. In fact there are a multitude of ways one could have been put at risk of contracting the disease. Beyond that, some people who have contracted the disease have no known risk factors.

In order to determine whether you may have been exposed to risk of hepatitis C infection it would be useful to ask yourself whether you have been exposed to any of the known transmission routes and how frequent those exposures may have been.

HCV Transmission

HCV is transmitted by direct blood-to-blood contact. Transmission routes include sharing drug paraphernalia for both injection and non-injection drugs (needles, cookers, tourniquets, straws, pipes, etc.). Needles used for tattooing, body piercing, and acupuncture may also spread HCV. Sharing personal items such as razors, toothbrushes, or nail files is a less likely, but still possible, transmission route.

Before 1992, many people contracted HCV through blood or blood product transfusions. In 1992, a reliable blood test to identify HCV antibodies became available. Since then, the blood supply has been screened. Now the risk is considered to be less than 1 chance per 2 million units of transfused blood. A small percentage of people (estimated at 1–3% for monogamous heterosexuals) may contract HCV through unprotected sexual activity. Healthcare workers are at risk for HCV infection because of needlestick accidents and unavoidable situations that may result in direct contact with blood from an infected individual.

Perinatal transmission from mothers with HCV to their infants before or during birth occurs less than 5% of the time. Whether or not transmission occurs may depend on the presence of high levels of HCV in the mother’s blood; mothers co-infected with HBV or HIV are more likely to transmit HCV to their babies. Some studies have shown that HCV is present in breast milk, but breast-feeding is believed to be safe.

HCV is not transmitted by casual contact such as sneezing, coughing, hugging, or sharing eating utensils and drinking glasses.

It is easy to determine some transmission routes as high or low risk, but for many potential transmission routes estimating risk is very difficult because it depends on a number of immeasurable factors. For example risk from clippers used by hairdressers would depend on how or whether they are cleaned, how often they are cleaned, how many customers may be exposed to the same clippers, how the clippers are used, and probably many other variables.   Sharing snorting equipment e.g. rolled bank notes or straws potentially poses a risk of transmission...

Household Transmission e.g. sharing razors and toothbrushes..

Medical and dental procedures

Mother To Baby

Needlestick Injury

Piercing and tattoos

Vaccinations

 

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