WARWICKSHIRE has been declared free of Hepatitis C – ahead of a national target to eliminate the infection across the country.
The disease has been ‘micro eliminated’ – meaning it has been eradicated in the county’s population through quick and easy diagnosis and treatment.
Change Grow Live, a drugs and alcohol service commissioned by Warwickshire County Council, has worked to develop quicker diagnoses and treatment for people living with Hep C across the county.
NHS England is working towards a country wide elimination of Hep C by the end of 2025 – but Warwickshire has already achieved this goal.
Coun Margaret Bell, the council’s spokesperson for Adult Social Care and Health, said: “What a great achievement for all of those involved in such groundbreaking work.
“I would like to extend or thanks to Change Grow Live for the dedication and strive that has led to future procedures in place to continue to help with diagnosis and treatment of Hep C.”
Clinics in the county have offered a test to every service user who needed one, tested 98 per cent of people with a history of injecting and 92 per cent of people with current risk factors of Hep C, and quickly treated 92 percent of people with Hep C.
Chris Saunders, Locality Manager at Change Grow Live, said: “Through the dedication of our colleagues and partner agencies and unwavering commitment to client engagement, micro elimination in Warwickshire by CGL has become a testament to teamwork, precision, and continuous improvement.
“We stayed on top of every detail, ensuring no challenge is too small to tackle and no opportunity for progress is overlooked. Every contact counts.”
Hep C is a virus that can infect the liver. If left untreated, it can sometimes cause serious and potentially life-threatening damage to the liver over many years. Most people with hep C can be cured with few or no side effects through taking a course of anti-viral tablets.
You can become infected with hep C if your blood comes into contact with the blood of an infected person.
Some ways the infection can spread include using unsterilised needles, or sharing personal care items like razors or toothbrushes.
Most infections of hep C in the UK happen in people who inject drugs or have injected them in the past. Therefore it is important for anyone who has ever injected recreational drugs to get tested.
Hep C often does not have any noticeable symptoms until the liver has been significantly damaged. This means many people have the infection without realising it.
Symptoms can include feeling tired all the time, stomach ache, feeling and being sick, loss of appetite and flu-like symptoms.
The only way to know if these symptoms are caused by hep C is to get tested. Free at-home tests can be ordered online.
Alternatively, anyone worried they might have hep C from injecting drugs can visit one of the Change Grow Live hubs in Leamington, Rugby or Nuneaton.
Change Grow Live is a nationwide charity that helps tens of thousands of people every day. WCC has commissioned the organisation since 2018 to provide drug and alcohol support services to residents across Warwickshire. They offer a full range of treatments and interventions, including the continuation of rigorous hep C testing, designed to support people to take control of their recovery journey and achieve their recovery goals.
Visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/alcohol for more information about drug and alcohol support services in Warwickshire. Visit www.nhs.uk/conditions/hepatitis-c for more information about hep C, and to order an at-home test.
