| Author (Person) | Banks, Martin |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.5, 12.2.04 |
| Publication Date | 12/02/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Martin Banks Date: 12/02/04 HEPATITIS C poses a major challenge to public health in the European Union, the EU's drugs agency has warned. The Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction estimates that "several million" Europeans are infected with the disease. The agency's chief, Georges Estievenart, called it a "hidden epidemic" that policymakers cannot afford to ignore. "The implications of inaction for EU public health budgets are likely to be considerable," he said. "It is better to provide screening, prevention education and treatment now than to let the disease spread and to wait until sufferers become chronically ill." Each year of delay in preventing new hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in the EU may lead to an increase in treatment costs of an extra €1.4 billion, warns the agency. On a more positive note, it states that since the introduction of screening of blood and blood products for hepatitis C, transmission of the virus has been dramatically reduced. Injecting drug users are now the group at greatest risk, accounting for up to 60-90% of new infections. Estievenart said: "Health promotion activities are needed to discourage people from injecting drugs or to change their behaviour to reduce the risk of contracting the virus if they are unable to stop. "Hepatitis C is a highly infectious and potentially fatal disease that attacks the liver, yet people who have contracted the virus often remain symptom-free for many years and most cases are undiagnosed." In a reference to the drugs challenge posed by enlargement, he added: "Wherever injecting drug use is likely to increase, such as in some of the new EU member states, new epidemics of hepatitis C are likely to emerge." Meanwhile, EU leaders have been urged to do more to tackle the present "crisis" in international drugs policy. Speaking at a conference on drugs policy at the European Policy Centre in Brussels last week, Raymond Kendall, a former head of Interpol, said: "The EU should use its weight as the largest global contributor to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime funding to open the debate on the failure of drug policy and a move towards harm reduction. "It has allowed other nations who are engaged in the essentially enforcement approach towards the drugs war, despite its failure, to dominate this debate far too long." Petr Mares, deputy prime minister of the Czech Republic, agreed, adding: "We strongly believe that drug policy should be realistic and not driven by the desire to punish drug users." 'A hidden epidemic' and 'a major challenge to public health' is how the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction describes hepatitis C in Issue No.11 of its 'Drugs in Focus' publication, released in February 2004. The Agency says that over the past few years hepatitis C has emerged as a major threat to public health worldwide. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Health |
