Tune In to Hep C

One reader suggested to me privately that the title of my last post was over the top, and perhaps so, but as Jimmy Buffet wrote, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane,” and I reserve the right to laugh at my own suffering, even if I am alone in doing so. However, I do apologize if anyone thought it was in bad taste.

Coincidentally, I saw on CNN today that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning “baby boomers” to get tested for the Hepatitis C virus. In the latest issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (not the most uplifting title either), the CDC says,

Many of the 2.7–3.9 million persons living with HCV infection are unaware they are infected and do not receive care (e.g., education, counseling, and medical monitoring) and treatment. CDC estimates that although persons born during 1945–1965 comprise an estimated 27% of the population, they account for approximately three fourths of all HCV infections in the United States, 73% of HCV-associated mortality, and are at greatest risk for hepatocellular carcinoma [cancer] and other HCV-related liver disease.”

Hepatitis C is transmitted through infected blood, by sharing needles, piercings, blood transfusions, and operations. I’ve heard reports of it transmitted by snorting cocaine and other drugs. You can even get Hepatitis C from using the razor or toothbrush of an infected person.

The CDC also reports that only 55 percent of people diagnosed with Hep C have a history of risky behavior. Many infections were acquired through yet undetermined exposure.

The list of well-known people with Hep C is long, and includes the names of folks who might fit the profile of a “usual suspect,” such as Keith Richards, Gregg Allman, Natalie Cole, and David Crosby. However, there are others who don’t fit that profile, like Billy Graham, Naomi Judd, Frank Reynolds (ABC news anchor), and Dharmachari Aryadaka, the first Buddhist chaplain in Washington state prisons.

The Director of the CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis, Dr. John Ward, says, “We had an epidemic of hepatitis C transmission in the ’70s and ’80s, and we’re now seeing an epidemic of hepatitis C disease.”

The really insidious part of Hep C is that you may feel you are not at risk because you don’t have any symptoms, but most people don’t have symptoms of hepatitis C for decades after being infected, and all the while it’s stealthily destroying your liver.

Hepatitis C can be cured. There are new drugs that will clear the virus from a person’s body. They were developed a bit too late for me. My only cure is a transplant. The HVC test is a simple blood test, a liver function test to determine if your enzyme levels are elevated or not.

So, if you are a baby boomer, and I know some readers of The Endless Further are, get yourself tested. Frankly, I think everyone regardless of their age group should be tested. Why not? It’s a cliche, but it’s true: better to be safe than sorry.

Get Tuned In to Hep C.