The hell of hepatitis

I contracted hepatitis C through a contaminated blood transfusion in 1986 and was left disabled as a result. The severe aplastic anaemia I suffered from (which was the reason for the transfusion) can be a deadly combination with hepatitis C, and it nearly killed me at the time.

Back then, medical staff told me and my wife, a State registered nurse, not to publicise that I was infected. until the recent publicity about the contaminated blood public inquiry, I received very little medical help on how to cope with the hepatitis C virus, so wrote out my own survival guide from information in medical papers and textbooks

Those infected are still not being given the information they need to give them their best chances of survival.

In addition to avoiding alcohol, they should avoid all drugs as much as possible and also many other agents which are toxic to the liver such as solvents and fluoride.

The virus on its own is unlikely to progress to fatal liver disease.

Two years ago when the virus flared up in me again, it took ten months to get scans done to see if I had liver cancer or cirrhosis, which was mental torture.

Many of those infected by contaminated blood have since died, often disabled and in poverty.

Those of us who are left have so many difficulties and indignities to put up with as a result of those who would prefer we were all dead and forgotten. For me, it has been a 32-year battle for survival. EDWARD PRIESTLEY,

Brighouse, W. Yorks.