Viral infection: The liver, like the heart, is a very precious organ - without it, we cannot survive. It aids digestion, detoxifies the blood, stores vitamins and regulates blood sugar, in addition to other essential functions.
And, as we are born with only one liver (unlike our kidneys), diseases which affect this vital organ must be taken seriously.
One such medical condition is hepatitis C. A viral infection against which there is no vaccine, it is spread by direct blood contact. Between the 1970s and 1990s, 1,600 people in Ireland were infected with hepatitis C by contaminated blood products.
The ongoing lack of a national hepatitis C register and the fact that medics believe only a third of those infected have been diagnosed, mean figures for those infected are only guesstimates, but could be up to 38,000, according to pharmaceutical company Roche.
There are three common misconceptions about the disease, according to Dr Shay Keating, medical officer with the Drug Treatment Centre Board in Dublin. Firstly, many people erroneously believe hepatitis C is not a serious disease. In fact, chronic hepatitis C is one of the main causes of liver disease, cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), liver cancer and required liver transplantation. Secondly, most people think the only way to contract the virus is through intravenous drug use, but this is not the case. "The majority of those infected are drug users but not exclusively." Finally, most people don't realise the disease was now "very treatable", he said.
Some 15 years ago, treatment could only control or get rid of the virus in about 10-20 per cent of those infected. Today, new medicines have been shown to successfully treat 50-80 per cent of patients, according to Roche.
In an effort to dispel the misunderstandings about the disease, the company has sponsored an information website to coincide with the first annual international Hepatitis C Awareness Day, which took place on Friday supported by a consortium of patient groups worldwide.
"It is extremely important that more people are made aware of hepatitis C as a treatable infection that is not restricted to certain risk groups, as it is commonly believed," said Prof William G Powderly of UCD and the Mater University Hospital.
In addition to dispelling the stigma associated with hepatitis C - that if you have it you must be a heroin addict - there is the challenge of educating those at risk of infection but who have never been tested. People vulnerable to infection include users of shared, un-sterilised needles and syringes, those who snort cocaine and medical staff at risk of needle-stick injury, said Dr Keating.
See www.Hep-links.com