 |
Alcohol-Related Liver Deaths
Linked to Heroin
Heroin users who contracted diseases like hepatitis C during the 1970s and
1980s are now dying of alcohol-related liver failure at an alarming rate,
according to British researchers.
Many heroin users unwittingly contracted hepatitis through heroin use, and the disease progressively damaged their livers. Subsequent alcohol use exacerbated the problem, leading to a 259-percent increase in deaths from alcohol-related liver damage among
middle-aged men between 1993 and 1999.
"Hepatitis C normally takes 20 or 30 years to lead to liver damage and so
does alcohol, but if you are hepatitis C-positive and you also drink
alcohol it races away," said John Henry, a researcher at St. Mary's
Hospital in London, who worked with colleagues at Imperial College on the
study. "That is what we think is happening. It is a sort of reaping
effect."
People infected with hepatitis have 31 times the risk of liver cirrhosis
as those who drink but don't have the disease, experts say.
Researchers recommended an increase in hepatitis screening to prevent
additional deaths.
|||
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical
|
|
H
E
P
-
C
|
