{"id":31296,"date":"2025-07-29T14:57:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/31296\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:57:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:57:31","slug":"there-are-no-symptoms-until-its-too-late-former-addict-warns-cocaine-users-to-get-tested-for-hepatitis-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/31296\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There are no symptoms until it\u2019s too late\u2019 \u2013 former addict warns cocaine users to get tested for hepatitis C"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">As awareness campaign is launched, Bernard West, who works for the Mater\u2019s screening programme, has some advice for the public\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753801051_871_video.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">&#8216;My friend told me he had hepatitis C, I just wanted the needle off him to inject myself with crack cocaine&#8217; &#8211; Bernard West, hep C survivor     <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">People who snort cocaine \u2014 or have done so in the past \u2014 could have unwittingly contracted hepatitis C and should immediately get tested to avoid falling seriously ill, they have been warned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Bernard West (48), a former intravenous drug user, was first diagnosed with hepatitis C in 2017. He has now been cured following treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As awareness campaign is launched, Bernard West, who works for the Mater\u2019s screening programme, has some advice for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[19158,102,2960,7156,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-31296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ali-bracken","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-hse","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}