A FORMER heroin addict had a 10ft image of his face displayed in a North-East town centre yesterday in an attempt to help save other people's lives.
The man, who asked to be known only as Jonathan, is a 38-year-old reformed heroin addict, who contracted the potentially life-threatening hepatitis C virus through sharing drug equipment.
He said he wanted to alert other people to the dangers posed by an illness that is usually treatable.
Health experts in Middlesbrough estimate that there may be more than 500 people in the borough who are unknowingly infected with hepatitis.
Most of these people will have acquired the virus by sharing contaminated needles or through other drug equipment.
The photograph is part of a Government-backed travelling exhibition by photographer Michele Martinoli.
Advertisement continued...
The aim of the exhibition - which was in Captain Cook Square Shopping Centre, in Middlesbrough, yesterday - is to encourage people at risk of infection to come forward for treatment.
It is thought there may be up to 200,000 people in England with hepatitis C, which can cause serious liver damage and shorten life expectancy.
Because it is symptomless until later stages, few people know they have it.
Speaking to The Northern Echo, Jonathan said: "I was diagnosed with hepatitis C about five years ago. I am about to start on a course of treatment which will mean injecting myself in my stomach once a week and taking tablets.
"I am absolutely behind this campaign. I just hope it will save lives."
Dr Brendan McCarron, a consultant in infectious diseases at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said there were about 2,000 people injecting drugs in the town and about 25 per cent showed signs of being infected with hepatitis C.
* The Hepatitis C information line is 0800-451-451 and is open between 10am and 10pm every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment