THE Shropshire Recovery Partnership, which treats people with alcohol and drugs addiction, says it has "micro-eliminated" hepatitis C by taking testing for the virus on the road around the county.

The group provides drug and alcohol recovery and treatment services to more than 1,000 people living across Shropshire, and said on Wednesday that its work has helped stamp out the virus in market towns including Oswestry.

Working with partners, the charity has been raising awareness of the importance of testing and treatment, with testing drop-in events and reward schemes for clients.

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The Shropshire Recovery Partnership, delivered by national charity WithYou, has always offered dried blood spot testing, which checks for hepatitis C and other blood-borne viruses (BBVs), from three hubs in Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Ludlow.

However, they quickly realised that a more tailored approach – which aligned to Shropshire’s geography – was needed.

This led to taking testing to people’s doorsteps, supporting the charity in offering a BBV test to every person who uses the service, and 100 per cent of those who tested positive started treatment.

Jan Burrows, With You Head of Service Delivery, who leads the Shropshire Recovery Partnership, said: “As a drug and alcohol treatment service, we come into regular contact with people who have a greater risk of hepatitis C, and so we knew that we had a really important role to play.

“But we also know that for some people, travelling to and from one of our hubs can take all day, especially if they don’t have access to a car.

“We quickly realised that, like how we do with our clinical prescribing clinics, we needed to go to where people live, rather than waiting for them to come to us.

“As a result, our teams have travelled to virtually every town across Shropshire to make it as easy as possible for our clients to get tested for hepatitis C and other BBVs.

“This, along with running drive days and education sessions from our main hubs, has enabled us to achieve hepatitis C micro-elimination across our Shropshire service.”

Hepatitis C can cause acute and chronic hepatitis which can range in severity - some people become mildly unwell, while others develop lifelong illnesses, including liver cirrhosis and cancer, which can lead to death.

Wendy Watkins, an Independent non-medical prescriber at WithYou in Shropshire who runs the charity’s clinical prescribing clinics, added: “I saw how Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis had exacerbated social isolation for a lot of the people we work with.

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“Instead of waiting for people to come to us in Shrewsbury, I started taking clinical prescribing clinics out into our community.

“When we signed up to micro-eliminate hepatitis C, I realised that our community prescribing clinics could help to play an important role in reaching our clients who live in Shropshire’s smaller market towns and villages.

“I’m really proud of the impact that our community prescribing clinics are having on the lives of local people.”