A private acupuncture clinic in Finchley is at the centre of one of the biggest British hepatitis outbreaks in 50 years.

Fourteen people have now contracted the potentially deadly hepatitis B virus after visiting the Finchley Alternative Medical Centre in Ballards Lane.

"Judging from the results we have already got back, this is likely to be one of the biggest outbreaks from a single source since the war," said Dr Stephen Farrow, Barnet Health Authority's director of public health.

A total of 205 patients, around a quarter of them from Barnet, are believed to have been exposed to the virus since July after undergoing an obscure homeopathic treatment at the clinic.

'Haemotherapy' involves a sample of the patient's blood being mixed with a saline solution and re-injected through a hole caused by an acupuncture needle.

Scientists at the Public Health Laboratory in Mill Hill have been unable to narrow down the source of the outbreak to a single patient, but it is believed that a failure to sterilise bottles containing the saline solution may have helped transmit the virus.

Three weeks ago, Barnet Health Authority wrote to 80 patients around the country advising them to have blood tests after visiting the clinic. Currently one in four of them is testing positive for the virus.

The authority has written to a further 125 patients after records revealed that Dr Madhusadan Shivadikar, who runs the clinic, was not the only member of staff administering haemotherapy.

Fewer people are expected to test positive as more results come in, but the infection becomes chronic in between five and 20 per cent of cases and can lead to cancer or liver damage.

Carriers of the hepatitis B virus may have few or no symptoms, so the authority is advising those tested to abstain from unprotected sex until they have two consecutive negative tests.

"The first reported cases seem to have been treated at the beginning of November so we are looking at that period and a bit before that," said Dr Farrow.

"We have had no reported cases of HIV where attendance at this clinic has been a possible link. But we are not actually looking for HIV at the moment."

Because of a loophole, legal safeguards that apply to acupuncturists and tattoo artists do not apply to the clinic.

The British Medical Council has called on the Government to set up a single regulatory body for practitioners of alternative medicine.

Dr Farrow said tighter regulations and better enforcement were needed for the use and disposal of needles and bottles in private clinics and called for staff to be vaccinated against hepatitis.

The Finchley Alternative Medical Centre declined to comment, but a spokesman for the Health & Safety Executive said that a prosecution over the outbreak was still "unlikely".

If you have been exposed to the virus at the clinic, advice is available by calling Barnet Health Authority on 0181 201 4700. See opinion.

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