Exploring the messy realities of living with Hepatitis C

Across the UK, 200,000 – 500,000 people live with chronic hepatitis C (HCV). Spread through blood to blood contact, the main route of transmission in the UK is via sharing injecting drug use equipment. The negative perceptions which accompany this, coupled with the hidden nature of the impairment and the slow course of the infection, have enacted and materialized HCV as a low priority for services and policy. There are treatments which can eradicate the virus, though treatment can exacerbate and produce severe impairment effects and disablism. Given the lack of attention afforded to HCV experience in the UK, at the heart of this study are 21 people with the virus, who participated in qualitative interviews. The book applies insights from the field of disability studies, a discipline which has not been used extensively to theorize the experiences of living with HCV. The book engages in an important and timely discussion of the everyday realities of living with HCV and shows that despite the current (and increasing) dominance of medical responses to HCV, there is an urgent need for other professionals (including social work) and those working in disability studies, to address HCV.