Ireland must prepare for a significant surge in liver disease over the next 20 years due to the prevalence of the disease among hepatitis C sufferers, a paper to be delivered at a conference this weekend claims.
Dr Lelia Thornton of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre is due to address the Irish Society of Gastroenterology meeting in Kilkenny on Saturday. She will deliver a paper entitled Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection in Ireland.
She has found that the prevalence of hepatitis C in Ireland stands at 20,000- 50,000 people. It is estimated that 5-20 per cent of these sufferers are likely to develop cirrhosis within 20 years of being infected.
“Unless they receive anti- viral treatment, most people who become infected with hepatitis C will remain infected for the rest of their lives and with the risk that they may develop cirrhosis,” she says.
About 80 per cent of hepatitis C infections in Ireland are the result of drug use.
It is also estimated that the receipt of blood or blood products resulted in a further 16 per cent of cases, according to the 2011 study.