§ 12. Mr. Peter Luff (Mid-Worcestershire) (Con)If she will make a statement on her policy on the treatment of hepatitis C. [177296]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Miss Melanie Johnson)In recent years, increasingly effective treatments for chronic hepatitis C have become available. In January 2004, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommended a combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin for the treatment of patients with moderate to severe chronic hepatitis C, which successfully clears the infection in around 55 per cent. of patients.
§ Mr. LuffMy own father died of hepatitis C when I was eight years old—he probably contracted the disease in Palestine during the first world war—so the Minister 142 will understand my personal grudge against the disease, and my concern for the 250,000 people in England alone who have the disease and do not know it. Why are the Government not showing more urgency in dealing with the looming hepatitis C crisis? Why, for example, does the advisory group on hepatitis website state this morning that the agenda and minutes of meetings
will be available starting with the meeting due to be held on the 8th October 2003"?More importantly why is the action plan, the publication of which was promised by the end of 2002, still not available?
§ Miss JohnsonI understand why the hon. Gentleman is particularly passionate about the subject. I shall correct one figure that he gave: we estimate that about 200,000 people in England, 0.4 per cent. of the population, are infected with hepatitis C—in some cases, the infection clears spontaneously. On current action, we have, as I said, improved the drug treatments. I assure the hon. Gentleman that the Department of Health will publish a hepatitis C action plan, which will highlight the need for prevention and for increased identification and treatment of infected patients.
§ Mr. Simon Burns (West Chelmsford) (Con)Where? When?
§ Miss JohnsonI am just coming on to that subject. The plan will be forthcoming over the summer and into the autumn, and it will lead to more diagnoses of hepatitis C, which will allow more people to be considered for treatment.