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Tim Loughton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the UK are infected with (a) Hepatitis C and (b) HIV or AIDS. [114786]
Ms Blears
The Health Protection Agency has estimated that:
Around 0.4 per cent. of the general population in England (about 200,000 people) have chronic hepatitis C infection. Up to the end of 2001, a cumulative total of about 26,600 laboratory diagnosed infections had been reported, suggesting that the majority of those infected have not yet been diagnosed.
Information on hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS in Scotland and Wales is available from the devolved administrations. While the institutions in Northern Ireland are dissolved, responsibility rests with Ministers in the Northern Ireland office.There were 38,400 HIV-infected adults living in England at the end of 2001, including an estimated 11,500, 30 per cent., who were not aware they were infected.