A Hepatitis C epidemic has broken out in Woyang county in Bozhou, Anhui Province, and may have been caused by unsafe injections, said local health authorities.
According to a press release issued by the Anhui Provincial Health Bureau on Monday, 56 potential carriers of the virus were examined and 13 were tested positive.
Many of the Hepatitis C carriers are children, according to China National Radio, which reported parents in Woyang often take their kids to the nearby Miaoqian clinic in Maqiao, Henan Province, to see doctors.
After hearing rumors that some children in Maqiao, who go to the same clinic, contracted Hepatitis C, the parents in Woyang took their kids to local hospitals to get blood tests and found out their children are also infected.
According to the press release, the Anhui Provincial Health Bureau received a report from the Bozhou Health Bureau on Friday indicating a Hepatitis C epidemic had broken out. The initial investigation suggested the epidemic may have been caused by unsafe injections because all the carriers had intravenous injections at the private clinic in Henan Province.
"The number of the Hepatitis C virus carriers remains at 13 for the time being. We received the report from the Bozhou Health Bureau on Friday," said an employee at the public relations office in Anhui Province, who refused to give her name or reveal more details of the case. "We will have a meeting to discuss the public awareness strategy."
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver. It usually spreads through contact with infected blood and there is no vaccine for it.
Most of those infected have no symptoms until the virus causes liver damage, which can take 10 or more years to occur.
Though some people can fight off the virus, most Hepatitis C infections become chronic. Without treatment, chronic Hepatitis C can scar the liver and lead to liver cancer or liver failure.
The outbreak comes one year after a cholera epidemic in Anhui, which infected 33 people.
In August 2010, health authorities in Mengcheng, Anhui Province, withheld the statistics of the cholera epidemic for 12 days.
The county said the numbers were delayed because it was not at liberty to release them.
Wang Jianjun, a vice director of the Anhui Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said people will become indifferent to epidemics if they publicize each infection case immediately.
And the decision on whether or not to notify the public was also based on a discussion with the Ministry of Heath, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.