Muammar Al Khadafi

Ministers are considering offering vaccinations against Hepatitis B to all children as cases of the potentially deadly illness soar within the UK, more than doubling in a decade.

The illness, which can cause chronic liver disease, cancer, and death, is spread via blood and other bodily fluids. Many infected will die if left untreated.

Experts from the Department of Healths Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation have discussed whether a vaccination could be given to all children along with the current childhood vaccines given at an early age for polio, whooping cough, HIB, tetanus and diphtheria.

Quoted by the Daily Mail, Dr George Kassianos, spokesman for the Royal College of GP's says "Migration has changed the hepatitis B epidemiology in the UK and whole of Europe. We need to do something about it while it is possible to control the disease by vaccination".

A big clue there, pretty plain where the problem lies, but let's do a little digging to see if we can find out just how much "Migration has changed the hepatitis B epidemiology in the UK".

What better place to start than the British Medical Association (BMA) who are often revealing some terrifying statistics about our nations health.

Their "Hepatitis B vaccination in childhood" paper from May 2010 proves truly enlightening.

According to estimates contained within that paper, there are an estimated 180,000 people chronically infected with the virus within the UK, or approximately 0.3% of the population. That figure is drawn from "Department of Health. Getting ahead of the curve. A strategy for combating infectious diseases. London DH, 2002" - so most likely a little out of date, but it will do.

Quoting directly from the BMA we are told that "Ethnic minorities and immigrant populations have prevalence similar to their country of origin". Given that Hep B is high prevalence in Africa, South East Asia, the Amazon, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent, according to the same BMA report, we appear to be getting somewhere.

It's already becoming obvious that the number of imported cases of Hepatitis B are going to be high, but the reality told by the BMA is far higher than most would guess.

"In addition, there are at least 1,300 cases of symptomatic acute hepatitis B each year and 7,700 new cases of chronic hepatitis B. Of these new chronic cases, around 300 people were infected within this country, while the remainder, some 96 per cent, have entered this country, generally from areas of high prevalence where HBV is frequently transmitted from mother to child" - BMA 2010 report, Epidemiological data : UK

Ninety six percent of new cases came from outside of this country. The source cited by the BMA there is a 2004 report from the Foundation for Liver Research.

Now, going on simple odds, it stands to reason that at least some of those 4% of new infections who were infected within the UK will actually have been infected by the 96% of outside cases, whether that be by mother to child transmission, sexual activity, intravenous drug use, or other methods of transmission.

The cost to the NHS, and to public health is tremendous. The BMA report cited a cost of £589million annually based on German costs, which were again estimated - and from the year 2000. Between the rising cost of treatments, and the rising number of cases of Hepatitis B, feel free to guess how much that will have increased by now.

No need to wonder any longer why Hepatitis B cases in the UK are rising, nor why ministers and health authorities are eyeing the idea of vaccinating all children. The truth of the matter seems pretty apparent, and the cause of soaring cases of this horrifying illness within the UK self evident.

As with HIV and Tuberculosis, as well as a number of other illnesses, with Hepatitis B we can see a direct link between rising numbers of cases within the UK and mass immigration into this country. The longer our borders remain wide open, the more the health of our nation will suffer.

BMA Report