Madam, - With respect to Dr Muiris Houston, I feel that his otherwise excellent coverage of the recent hepatitis C conference in your edition of June 27th was marred by a somewhat distorted profile of a typical hepatitis C sufferer.
The sero-prevalence of this condition amongst the intravenous drug user population is currently around 80 per cent or more. This represents a significant pool of infection within the community, and also an enormous potential morbidity for years to come unless there is an appropriate response.
The hepatology services in the Dublin hospitals are already faced with a substantial workload from this disease; if a consistent quality of care is to be maintained in the future an expansion of the services would seem to be imperative.
If such provisions are based only the statistics of iatrogenic hepatitis C, there will be a serious shortfall in services in the future. - Yours, etc.,
Dr B. ASHCROFT-JONES, Grange Manor Drive, Dublin 16.