Dirty needles lead to hepatitis C outbreak - Medical News From Around The World - Brief Article

Nutrition Health Review, Fall, 2002

EGYPT -- Up to 20 percent of people living in Egypt have tested positive for hepatitis C, a disease that can cause liver failure, and dirty needles are thought to be the reason, according to an article in The Lancet (March 11, 2000).

The needles were part of a mass campaign by health authorities to combat a blood-borne parasite that causes schistosomiasis, a common illness in Egypt. The procedure for disinfecting the needles was thought to be sufficient at the time.

"Egypt's extensive and dedicated nationwide control program for schistosomiasis was the cause of the current high prevalence of hepatitis C in the country," says G. Thomas Strickland of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

People who received the most injections were the most likely to contract hepatitis C. The development of oral medications for schistosomiasis in the 1980's coincided with a drop in the number of hepatitis C cases in younger people. Dr. Strickland noted that the injection campaign might have caused the world's largest transmissions of blood-borne pathogens from medical intervention.