Over 700,000 Poles are infected with the HCV virus, the cause of Hepatitis C, but only around 50,000 cases have been diagnosed and treated, say health experts.

The HCV virus causes inflammation of the liver, is difficult for the human immune system to eliminate from the body and usually becomes chronic.

Undiagnosed, the chronic infection causes liver failure and liver cancer, that is why it is called the ‘silent killer’.

The number of patients diagnosed and treated in Poland is very small, informs the Bydgoszcz Clinic of Infectious Diseases, which has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the threat of Hepatitis C.

Over 80 percent of those with the HCV virus have a chronic infection of the liver, which is sometimes difficult to diagnose due to lack of symptoms.

In Poland 80 percent of patients have been infected in hospitals through blood transfusions or blood products after medical instruments have been re-used without appropriate sterilisation.

The virus can also be transmitted due to lack of hygiene in beauty parlours or hair dressers, say healtyh experts.

Contrary to the other forms of hepatitis - A and B  - no vaccine has yet been fund for hepatitis C .

According to WHO statistics some three percent of the world population are infected with hepatitis C and the number is growing each year. It is estimated that in Poland 1,9 percent of the population is infected. (ab)