Six in 10 people infected with the hepatitis C virus in the Republic remain undiagnosed, a major conference has heard.
The conference, entitled Hidden Disease: The Future of Hepatitis C treatment in the Community and Primary Care in Ireland and hosted by Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), took place in Dublin on Saturday.
There were calls by experts for the role of GPs to be enhanced to enable greater diagnosing of the virus.
Speakers discussed the challenges and opportunities in transferring the treatment of hepatitis C to primary care in Ireland.
Attendees also heard about the incidence of the virus in hospitals, prisons, drug clinics and homeless shelters both in Ireland and abroad, as well as the available treatments and everyday challenges facing patients.
Hepatitis C is a major cause of liver disease. While risk factors differ, injecting drug use (IDU) is a major risk factor in developed countries like Ireland.
Recently published national guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis C estimated that there are between 20,000 and 42,000 people with the infection in Ireland but a large majority, of up to 60 per cent of those infected with the infection remain undiagnosed.
Source: Colin Gleeson, The Irish Times, 24/02/18
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