§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect of needle exchanges in the community on the incidence of hepatitis C in each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement. [29845]
§ Ms JowellWe have not made any such assessment. Acquisition of hepatitis C is most often asymptomatic and new infections are usually not identified.
HIV may also be transmitted among drug misusers through the sharing of blood contaminated injecting equipment. Needle exchange schemes have contributed to the decline in the prevalence of HIV in this group.
The Department is currently seeking ways of improving the surveillance of hepatitis C prevalence among injecting drug misusers.
§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his estimate of the incidence of hepatitis C in each of the past 10 years(a) in prison and (b) nationally; and if he will make a statement. [29842]
§ Ms JowellThe number of new infections nationally is not known. Hepatitis C infection rarely produces an acute symptomatic illness with jaundice and hence very few incident infections are identified.
Tests for antibodies to the virus will identify individuals who have been previously infected by the virus but do not distinguish between resolved infection and established chronic infection.
Laboratory reports of the presence of antibodies to hepatitis C in the general population received by the Public Health Laboratory Service's Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre for England from 1991, the earliest year for which figures are available, to 1996 are shown in the table. The rise in laboratory reports is consistent with increased testing and reporting during that period:
553W
Laboratory reports of hepatitis C infections, England 1991–1996 Year Number 1991 26 1992 228 1993 410 1994 726 1995 1,291 1996 1,912 Prisoners in England are not routinely tested for hepatitis C. We understand from Her Majesty's Prison Service that information on the numbers of prisoners infected with hepatitis C is based on voluntary disclosure or testing. This information has been collected only since 1995. In the financial years 1995–96 and 1996–97, there were 543 and 760 reports of prisoners infected with hepatitis C respectively.