HC Deb 30 April 2002 vol 384 cc730-1W
Tim Loughton

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have died from hepatitis C in each of the last 10 years. [53289]

Ruth Kelly

[holding answer 29 April 2002]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Kidgell to Tim Loughton dated 30 April 2002: The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question concerning numbers of deaths from hepatitis C in each of the last 10 years. (53289) I am replying in his absence. The table below gives the number of deaths with an underlying cause of hepatitis C from 1995 to 2000. Figures are only available from 1995 as the information needed to identify deaths from hepatitis C has only been held in a reliable, electronic form since that date.

Number of deaths where the underlying cause of death1 was

hepatitis C2, persons, England and Wales, calendar years 1995 to

20003
Calendar year Number of deaths
1995 59
1996 60
1997 82
1998 92
1999 92
2000 125
1 The underlying cause of death is the disease or condition that initiates the train of morbid events leading directly to death
2 Selected using a combination of underlying cause codes 070.4–070.5 from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) and the presence of text referring to hepatitis C on the death certificate.
3 Data relate to deaths occurring per calendar year.

These figures are likely to underestimate the true mortality related to hepatitis C for several reasons. Firstly, because the certifying doctor may not always know about the existence of a hepatitis C infection, contracted many years earlier, that had given rise to another fatal liver disease. Secondly, where several other factors (e.g. alcohol, other blood-borne viruses) contributed to fatal chronic liver disease, the certifying doctor may judge that one of the other factors is more important. And finally, because deaths with an underlying cause of primary liver cancer are not included here, even if certified as being the result of hepatitis C infection. This is because international coding rules in use at the time (ICD-9) do not accept cancers being due to infections, except in the case of HIV/AIDS.