A significant surge in liver disease is expected to take place in Ireland over the next 20 years as a long-term legacy of the country’s heroin problem, a leading public health medicine expert has claimed.
A recently-published study estimated that Ireland currently has between 20,000 and 50,000 people with hepatitis C infection. It is estimated that between 5 per cent and 20 per cent of those with chronic hepatitis C are likely to develop cirrhosis within 20 years of being infected.
The use of needle-injected drugs has led to a prevalence of Hepatitis C infection, with a peak in diagnosis in Ireland occurring between 1997 and 2001.
Source: Irish Medical Times, 20/04/2012
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