What's Going Around?
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV).About 4 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C... most of whom don't know it, according to the National Institutes of Health. That's because hepatitis C often causes few symptoms. The virus can be transmitted from an infected person by sharing needles or from an infected mother to her baby during birth. Alternatively, many have had the virus for years, having contracted it from a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992, when supplies began to be screened for the disease.
Despite its silence, hepatitis C can be deadly. According to Eliot W. Godofsky, MD, hepatitis C will be responsible for up to 30,000 deaths a year over the next decade. Godofsky is president and co-founder of Bach and Godofsky, the largest private infectious disease practice specializing in the treatment of viral hepatitis in the U.S., and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa.
The good news is that despite popular misconceptions, hepatitis C is curable. Standard treatment with the immune system-boosting drug interferon (known as Intron A, Pegasys, or Peg-Intron) and the antiviral drug ribavirin (known as Copegus and Rebetol; the combination drug is called Rebetron) achieves a "sustained response" in about 50% of people with the most common subtype of hepatitis C, he says. That means that the virus has been eliminated from their blood... and doesn't return even after treatment is stopped.
You may be at risk for hepatitis C and should contact your medical care provider for a blood test if you:
- Were notified that you received blood from a donor who later tested positive for hepatitis C
- Have ever injected illegal drugs, even if you experimented a few times many years ago
- Received a blood transfusion or solid organ transplant before July, 1992
- Were a recipient of clotting factor(s) made before 1987
- Have ever been on long-term kidney dialysis
- Have evidence of liver disease (e.g., persistently abnormal ALT levels)
Information was gathered from CDC © and WebMD © websites.