Nursing needs its leaders to respond to Francis
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- Article: Greyson O (2012) Hepatitis C awareness among South Asians. Nursing Times; 108: 32/33, 21-23.
Key points
- Many people are unaware of their hepatitis C virus infection due to its asymptomatic nature or non-specific symptoms
- Diagnosis usually involves testing serum for both anti-HCV antibodies and HCV ribonucleic acid
- Sharing equipment among injecting drug users is the most common route of infection in industrialised countries
- This group is under-represented in testing and treatment programmes for HCV, despite being most at risk
- The primary goal of therapy is to cure the infection and attain a sustained virological response
Let’s discuss
- What you know about hepatitis C? If you need to update your knowledge, you may find this overview of the condition useful.
- Why is it important to increase awareness of hepatitis C among the South Asian community?
- The author of this paper found that awareness of hepatitis C was better in London than Bedford. How can this difference be explained?
- What barriers prevent people from South Asian community coming forward for screening for hepatitis C?
- After reading the article, what strategies would you adopt to raise awareness among this population?
- Recent figures from HPA suggest a rise in the numbers of people presenting with liver damage as a result of Hepatitis C. How could this be prevented?
From Putting it into practice
How do we put research into practice in the surgery or the hospital ward? Each week we’ll pick out a practice article and pose some topics for debate and you can pose your own questions too …Follow the weekly debates on twitter with #NTjournalclub
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