I am a Hepatitis Nurse in Yorkshire, UK. I have noticed a disproportionate number of clients who were born in or have visited Pakistan coming to my clinic with Hepatitis C. In fact up to 25% of my clients fit this profile. This has worrried and upset me, as many of my clients are so young. I decided I would visit Pakistan to find out how Hepatitis C is being transmitted there by meeting health professionals in Pakistan, meet up with people there who have Hepatitis C and do what I can to help the situation there by offering teaching there. The main aim would be to provide information to people travelling to Pakistan so that they can protect themselves from Hepatitis C whilst there. The second aim would be to advertise the trip widely so that people of Pakistani origin will be encouraged to go to their GP to to get a Hepatitis C test.
I applied for funding from the Florence Nightingale Trust (
www.florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk) who provide funding for nurses who wish to travel to investigate nursing issues. I was very lucky to be successful, and received funding from The Sandra Charitable Trust.
In order to make the trip particuarly of interest to local Pakistani people, and to make certain the trip will be successful I decided to take with me a local woman who has successfully been treated for Hepatitis C, and is now cured. Mrs SB is an amazing woman, who works as an outreach worker in Thornton Lodge Neighberhood Learning Centre in Huddersfied, and works as a beautician. She has a family and incredible amounts of energy. She Learning Centre to fundraise £300 for the project!
I contacted the Hepatitis C Trust, the only national Hepatitis C charity in Britain, Hepatitis C Trust (
www.hepCuk.info) about the trip. They are planning on making leaflets in Urdu about Hepatitis C for the Pakistani community in the UK. They asked if I would take photographs whilst I am in Pakistan for these leaflets. This fitted exactly with the aims of the project so I was extremely happy to accept. They have written a letter for me which explains the aim of the project.
Professor Graham Foster, an important researcher in Hepatitis C in Britain who is based at Queen Mary University in London, was very encouraging to me about the trip. He has done research about Hepatitis C amaongst Pakistani people in E London. He gave me a the name of a Dr with whom he is working with in Pakistan. He also provided me with a questionairre which I hope to use with people in Pakistan who have Hepatitis C so that we can begin to work out the methods of transmission. Coincidentally he is in Islamabad at the same time as us and so Mrs SB and I hope to go to dinner with him so we can discuss our findings.
An essential part of the trip is maimum publicity so that as many people of Pakistani origin hear of it, to encourage people to come forward for Hepatitis C testing. So far we have had an article in the Huddersfield Examiner (
http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=16492546&method=full&siteid=50060-name_page.html) and in the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust News. The hospital Communication Department is sending out a press release to all major national and Asian newspapers and radio stations, so we can just cross our fingers and find out what happens next!
