More kids confirmed infected with hep C virus
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China.org.cn, December 1, 2011
A Hepatitis C epidemic has broken out in Henan and Anhui provinces, and may have been caused by the use of unsterilized syringe needles at a private clinic.
![A child who has contracted hepatitis C receives treatment in a hospital in Anhui province on Tuesday. At least 13 people in the province have contracted the disease.[Photo/Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20111201/0019b93bd68d10411c0501.jpg "A child who has contracted hepatitis C receives treatment in a hospital in Anhui province on Tuesday. At least 13 people in the province have contracted the disease.[Photo/Xinhua]") |
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A child who has contracted hepatitis C receives treatment in a hospital in Anhui province on Tuesday. At least 13 people in the province have contracted the disease.[Photo/Xinhua] |
So far, 104 people in Henan and 76 in Anhui have tested positive for having hepatitis C antibodies but will have to take more tests to confirm if they have contracted the disease.
Among the 76 who tested positive in Anhui, most were children aged 10 or below.
A team of experts sent by the Ministry of Health are currently investigating the outbreak, however, they didn't offer any details.
An initial investigation by health authorities in Anhui Province showed all infected people once received intravenous injections at a clinic in the nearby Maqiao township of Yongcheng city in the neighboring Henan province, and the reuse of needles at a village clinic might have caused the outbreak.
Zhou Yong, head of the emergency office with Henan's public health department, who has led an investigative panel probing the case since Tuesday, said his chief concern was to verify whether the rural Miaoqian clinic was where the outbreak started.
He said his team found little evidence of recycling of dirty needles, having inspected conditions in the clinic, its intravenous injection procedures, purchasing channels of medicines and other medical supplies.
Blood samples of 41 people, among the 151 who had received injections in the rural clinic this year, had been collected for tests, and the results will be released soon, Zhou said.
According to Zhou, the doctor heading the controversial clinic, Wu Wenyi, has spent more than 40 years practicing medicine and holds licenses from the local health department.
Angry parents claimed doctors used a single syringe needle for dozens of children without sterilizing it.
Chen Yuping, whose 2-year-old son, Zhang Ziheng, was confirmed as carrying the virus, said Dr. Wu Wenyi seldom bothered to change needles when injecting different children and would be angry when asked to do so.
Like other families with infected kids in the hospital, Chen was paying for treatment out of her own pocket and spent nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,570) on tests and hospital stays.
"The treatment options doctors give us are too expensive for our family," said the mother.
Li Jian, deputy director of the health bureau in Guoyang county, said authorities in Anhui had made a draft plan to provide health insurance to cover the medical costs in the 13 confirmed cases in Anhui. The plan will be announced in the next two days.
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver. It usually spreads through contact with infected blood and there is no vaccine for it.
Most of those infected have no symptoms until the virus causes liver damage, which can take 10 or more years to occur.
Though some people can fight off the virus, most Hepatitis C infections become chronic. Without treatment, chronic Hepatitis C can scar the liver and lead to liver cancer or liver failure.
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