Hepatitis fears for hundreds of Scots after Spanish outbreak

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Hepatitis fears for hundreds of Scots after Spanish outbreak

    * Professor David Goldberg: Extra testing was just a precaution.

Matthew Holehouse
1 Dec 2010

Hundreds of dialysis patients in Scotland are being called in for screening amid fears they could have contracted the hepatitus C virus from two Scottish holidaymakers who became infected while undergoing treatment at a clinic in Spain.

The male Scottish victims, one from the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde board area and one from the NHS Forth Valley board area, are understood to have received dialysis in September at the Centro Hemodiálisis Nefdial on Majorca.

They returned to Britain unknowingly carrying the blood-borne disease – which can cause liver failure – and continued their treatment in Scotland.

Health experts say they could have passed it to other dialysis patients in Scottish hospitals. Health Protection Scotland said the threat was “extremely low” because of the robust infection control measures in place in Scotland.

However, 245 people who may have been treated in the same units as the two people in Scotland are being offered extra screening for hepatitis C.

Professor David Goldberg, consultant epidemiologist at Health Protection Scotland, said: “We are undertaking this additional testing purely as a precaution.

“Patients undergoing dialysis in Scotland can be assured that the risk of acquiring any blood-borne virus infection, such as hepatitis C, is extremely low.”

Dialysis patients are already routinely screened for hepatitis C, a virus that can be caught only if blood carrying the virus gets into the bloodstream.

A Europe-wide alert was issued after Scottish doctors spotted the infection after the infected men returned from holiday.

The Spanish clinic has been closed and is now at the centre of an international investigation as medical experts from the European Union try to assess the scale of the outbreak and pinpoint its source.

Most of those infected are Spanish but it is feared up to 40 patients from the UK, Italy, Germany, and France could also be at risk.

“We know that the two Scots didn’t have the disease when they came to Majorca, and suspect the same in other cases,” said a source familiar with the investigation.

“With genetic testing, we can see if the virus genome is shared among patients. If so, it would be a massive infection.”

The hunt for victims involves the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the Spanish Health Ministry and Health Protection Scotland.

European Commission officials said that some of the identified patients had the virus before arriving in Majorca – suggesting they could be the source of the outbreak.

The clinic, in the inland town of Inca, is popular with Scots seeking a holiday while undergoing blood treatment and has received glowing reports from patients.

A source close to the clinic told The Herald she was shocked by the outbreak.

“We don’t know where it comes from. There is a lot of panic. They are really clean. It’s all single-use, no re-use of sterile needles,” she said.

She said the clinic treated hepatitis-carrying patients in separate rooms with different dialysis machines for non-infected people.

“We cannot explain it. We don’t understand it. I know the clinic, the nurses, and I know how they work.”

She said the clinic was closed last week but it was hoped it would reopen next week. A staff member at the clinic said last night: “We are closed for sanitation. It is a precaution.”

Four in five people cannot get rid of the virus by themselves and carry it long-term.

Most will remain well for 15 to 20 years but some people go on to develop cirrhosis and a very small number may also go on to develop liver cancer.

In Scotland an estimated 40,000 people are thought to be infected with hepatitis C, and it is particularly prevalent among intravenous drug users.

It is much more common on the continent, with nearly nine million Spaniards thought to be infected.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/hepatitis-fears-for-hundreds-of-scots-after-spanish-outbreak-1.1071776