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A new study by the Faculty of Military Medicine at the Czech Army’s University of Defence in Hradec Králové has found that here in the Czech Republic Hepatitis C may be far more widespread than previously believed.
Experts had estimated incidence at around 10,000. However, the report puts the number suffering from chronic Hepatitis C at over 80,000. Many of those infected are unaware of the fact and could pass it on to others.
The man behind the study, Professor Roman Chlíbek, says adults ranging from 18 to 90 were tested.
“We call it ‘from the street’ – meaning we carried out tests on the regular population. There were people with high-risk behaviour, those without high-risk behaviour, and a certain number of needle using drug addicts. By examining their blood we came up with figures that are at least eight times higher than those officially recorded in 2001. We found that 1.67 percent of the population have signs of the hepatitis C virus and 0.93 percent have chronic hepatitis C.”