Tattooed or got surgery abroad? You could be among the 70,000 with undiagnosed Hepatitis C

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With the number of Brits travelling abroad for cosmetic procedures on the rise in recent years, healthcare professionals are issuing a warning about undiagnosed hepatitis C. It's thought that thousands in the country have the disease and don't know about it, according to recent figures. But how harmful can the condition be?

Transcript

00:00 When someone first gets a few, well, a small proportion of people may become very unwell.

00:06 And hepatitis, which means inflammation of the liver, if the liver gets so inflamed within those

00:10 first few weeks or months, they may develop jaundice, which is a yellowing in the skin and

00:15 a yellowing in the eyes. And they may feel, you know, they may have fevers and aches and pains

00:19 and abdominal pain. And in that situation, they'll probably go to the doctor and get some tests done

00:25 and they'll probably get diagnosed. But for many people, they don't get those symptoms.

00:30 It's estimated more than 70,000 people in the UK might have hepatitis C, which they are knowingly

00:36 acquired abroad through dental, cosmetic or health procedures, or even through tattoos or piercings.

00:42 This can happen when equipment for procedures is not sterilised or appropriate hygiene measures

00:47 are not followed. Experts at NHS England also warn it can be contracted by sharing domestic

00:53 items like razors and toothbrushes. Procedures such as piercings, tattooing,

00:58 cosmetic surgery, procedures, dental procedures. Normally in the UK, when those are done,

01:04 there's a very stringent level of infection control, which prevents any infections being

01:09 passed on. But a lot of people these days get those things done outside of the UK.

01:15 And if they're being done in countries where they don't have such a high standard of infection

01:19 control, it may be putting people at risk of blood-borne virus infections such as hepatitis C.

01:25 And the research showed that anything up to 10 to 20% of people were aware of someone they knew,

01:33 or they themselves had got a tattoo when they went on holidays, and perhaps never even thought

01:38 that that might be putting them at risk of hepatitis C infection. Hepatitis C can be treated

01:43 by a short course of tablets once identified, but if left can cause a whole host of issues like

01:48 liver cancer or even liver failure. Now as part of an NHS England campaign, home test kits are

01:55 available for everyone in the country, with healthcare professionals encouraging at-risk

01:59 groups to get tested. What sort of groups of people would you recommend looking to get tested

02:05 and how would they go about getting that test? It's really important to look at all the different

02:10 risk factors. First and foremost, anybody who has ever injected a drug or had a drug injected into

02:15 them. Anybody who's had a tattoo or a piercing or any surgical procedure that's been done outside of

02:21 the UK or in a setting such as a prison where they may not have had access to sterile equipment to

02:29 have that performed. A lot of these behaviours are very stigmatised, so if somebody had injected a

02:34 drug or perhaps they've had a tattoo that they didn't want anyone to know about, they don't have

02:39 to go and say, "Listen, I've done this, do you think I should have a test?" They can just go

02:43 online to hepctest.nhs.uk. They can order a free test kit to be sent to their home as just a

02:52 fingerprick sample of blood into a little bottle, pop it back in the post and you get your results

02:57 texted to you, usually within a week. If you're in Wales, you can get a postal testing kit via

03:03 Sexual Health Wales too.

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