The State’s target to eliminate hepatitis C is now 21 years behind schedule, it has been claimed.

Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes inflammation of the liver and is a major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. It is spread through contact with the blood of an infected person and if left untreated, can shorten life expectancy by up to 15 years.

It is usually associated with drug use, but can also be contracted through sexual activity, tattoos, infected blood products and snorting narcotics.

However, hepatitis C is one of the few curable viruses in the world. Diagnosis is through a PCR test and treatment is via oral medication that is given for eight to 12 weeks.

According to Prof Jack Lambert, a consultant in infectious diseases and genitourinary medicine at Dublin’s Mater Hospital and UCD, up to 20,000 people in Ireland may have the disease, with around 600-700 new diagnoses annually.

These figures put Ireland two decades off elimination targets and this is due to limited availability of treatment for those outside of specialist addiction services.

In fact, the number of people being treated for the disease has fallen by two-thirds – from 354 in the first three months of 2019 to just 110 in the same period this year.

“At the moment, we have probably had as many, if not more, new infections in the past five years as we have treated. In 2020, we treated approximately 550 people and less than 100 of those in the wider community setting. We have to re-think how we can reach our target of treating 1,500 people per year to eliminate Hepatitis C by 2030,” Prof Lambert commented.

He pointed out that while people on methadone are being identified all the time, people who may previously have been drug users, but are no longer engaged in care, “may be part of the silent epidemic of those lost to follow up”.

“We now have a lost cohort of hepatitis C sufferers. Everyone should have a hepatitis C test once in their lifetime, probably during their forties, as is the case in the US,” he insisted.

Prof Lambert said that other groups must now be targeted for screening, including those who developed the virus from non-intravenous drug use, sexual contact and tattoos.

He also noted that the infection of large numbers of people from eastern Europe with tainted blood products following the fall of the Soviet Union, who are now living here, is also a contributing factor to rising cases.

According to Kristy Hayes, head of advocacy with the Hep C Partnership, Ireland is “not among the 11 countries worldwide on track to meet elimination targets by 2030”.

“The scandal is that our neighbours in the UK can have someone tested and beginning treatment within an hour. We are nowhere near that in the community and there are only a handful of GPs prescribing here," she explained.

Sophie (53) from Dublin is a project worker in the healthcare service. She is convinced she contracted the virus after getting two tattoos in her 20s, and she believes she would have died had she not received treatment.

“There are people who have never touched drugs who have Hepatitis C and they’re put through a huge amount of stigmatisation. Sometimes it feels worse than having a criminal history. The minute hepatitis C is mentioned, you are judged,” she said.

Sophie, who holds qualifications from both Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University, believes more needs to be done to challenge stigma, particularly when it is often disproportionately directed towards disadvantaged groups.

This issue was highlighted to coincide with World Hepatitis Day (July 28).