TY - JOUR T1 - Hepatitis C and general practice: the crucial role of primary care in stemming the epidemic JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 259 LP - 260 VL - 55 IS - 513 AU - John Budd AU - Roy Robertson Y1 - 2005/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/55/513/259.abstract N2 - The hepatitis C epidemic is now a public health crisis in the UK; this was the conclusion of the recent Scottish consensus conference on hepatitis C.1 Since the identification of the virus in 1989, the extent of the epidemic has been gradually unfolding, yet the scale of the clinical problem has yet to be defined. Hepatitis C is often described in relation to HIV, and although there are many similarities between the infections, with useful lessons to be learned for dealing with this ‘new’ epidemic, it has often led hepatitis C to be characterised as relatively an almost benign and incidental infection. This has had a profound impact on our response to the hepatitis C epidemic.Since the initial identification of AIDS as an infectious disease in 1981 and almost 20 years after the introduction of an antibody test capable of identifying those infected, it is now possible to identify positive and negative features of clinical practice, both then and now. Then, it was unknown how many infected individuals would progress to becoming ill with AIDS and there was no effective treatment available that might encourage active intervention or support testing individuals for infection.2 A great deal has been learned about patient care from those early years of the HIV epidemic and it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that, with the profound effect these lessons have had on patients' rights, the relationship between clinician and patient has been significantly reshaped. More is now understood about the natural history of the disease, and with the advance of effective treatment since 1996 — at least in developed countries — our whole clinical approach to HIV has been transformed.Hepatitis C, however, is a disease for which there are still many uncertainties. This has, like HIV in … ER -