More than a third of GPs are unable to read their patients' hepatitis C test results, according to a new poll.
Even when they do read them correctly, some fail to follow up with patients, despite nine out of 10 GPs routinely administering the tests, it found.
The poll of 200 UK GPs was carried out by ICM Healthcare on behalf of The Hepatitis C Trust.
Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, died in September last year aged 64 after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
She announced in February last year that she was suffering from hepatitis C, which she contracted from a blood transfusion in 1971 after giving birth.
She had lived with the disease for decades without any symptoms.
Some people with the disease suffer mild to more serious symptoms but one in five will clear the virus naturally.
Around one in five people will go on to develop severe liver damage, called cirrhosis, over a period of 20 years or more.
The poll found that 38% of GPs are unable to read hepatitis C test results correctly. Almost a third (32%) do not actively follow up with patients who test positive for hepatitis C and more than two thirds (77%) said they did not consider infectious diseases to be a major threat to public health.
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