Hepatits C Has Killed More People In The United States Over The Past Decade Than HIV and AIDS Or Any Other Form Of Viral Infection

Let’s be perfectly clear – the Hepatitis C virus, known as HCV, has killed more people in the United States over the past ten years than the AIDS-causing HIV virus. But HIV information and education resources are everywhere, and Hepatitis is the ignored and forgotten killer.  HCV is the leading chronic virus infection leading to death in the United States. The victims most often are baby boomers and most of them do not know they have the virus until it is too late. As many as 2 million of the 5.5 million infected American citizens do not even know they have the virus. While the fight against HIV has been championed, HCV has been allowed to invade our country and do extreme damage that we have chosen to ignore with a smile and a shrug of our shoulders.

Enough is enough!  Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found in a study published in the February 21, 2012 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine that hepatitis C had overtaken HIV as a cause of death in the United States by 2007. Deaths in the United States due to HIV infection have been steadily decreasing, and dropped below 13,000 in 2007, while deaths from hepatitis C infection have been steadily increasing, first surpassing 15,000 per year in 2007. The good news is that the various drug combination strategies that have done so much to transform HIV infection from a death sentence to a manageable disease are poised to further boost cure rates for those infected with hepatitis C.

PERSONS AT RISK According To The CDC

Chronic Hepatitis C has been diagnosed in about three million people in the United States. If you received a blood infusion before 1992 in any country, including America, you are at risk. If you received a blood transfusion in any European country prior to the past ten years, you could be at risk. If you received a blood transfusion in a third world country last year, you could be at risk. A major problem is that HCV often causes no symptoms before it is almost too late and the only viable treatment is a liver transplant. Many who have been infected for years or even decades may remain unaware until deadly symptoms finally appear with a vengeance. The ultimate cause of death attributable to chronic infection is cirrhosis or liver cancer, and there is no vaccine.

Compared to HIV or hepatitis B, the risk of hepatitis C being transmitted by sex is low. However, like HIV, that risk is increased in homosexual encounters. The idea of screening the general population seems obvious. At least, offer screenings at local businesses and clinics like they do with HIV. The problem is that the HCV test is much more expensive and much more difficult to do than the HIV test, What has been controversial is whether or not all baby boomers should be screened, but why the insurance companies are ignoring the threat to their clients and rejecting screening opportunities. Yet, another study suggests that a one-time blood test ordered by primary care providers to screen for antibodies to hepatitis C in those born between 1945 and 1965 would be cost effective – costing $2,874 for each chronically infected patient identified – and would lead to the identification of more than a million previously undiagnosed cases.

SCREENING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CDC

It is important not to mistake Hepatitis A or Hepatitis B for Hepatitis C. Despite having the same name, they are very different diseases. Hepatitis A is the traditional version of hepatitis that we have head about since we were kids. Hepatitis B chronically infects about half as many as hepatitis C in the United States, but it hits those of Asian descent particularly hard. Hepatitis B is responsible for about 1,800 deaths yearly in the United States. Despite the similar names, the two viruses are not closely related. Hepatitis B is spread much more easily through sexual intercourse, and passes from mother to newborn child much more easily. In most adults who become infected the immune system successfully controls infection. In addition, there are vaccines for hepatitis B.

It is time for a medical revolution in regards to Hepatitis C and a powerful campaign across all traditional lines of media to raise awareness. When two million Americans, despite past lifestyle choices, are in critical danger and do not even know it, enough is enough. We must take action or watch the death rates rise even higher until it becomes a black spot on the soul of our country.

No Big Headlines For Hepatitis C In The United States, No Awareness Campaigns: Millions Unaware They Are Infected, Millions Believe The Treatment Is Worse Than The Disease

Hepatitis C has never really captured big headlines in the U.S., as it has never benefitted from massive awareness boosting campaigns that have supported research for, say, HIV, or breast cancer. But hepatitis C has clearly emerged as one of the biggest opportunities in pharmaceuticals over the past few years. There are more than 3 million people in the U.S., and an estimated 170 million worldwide, with this liver infection that can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. 

How Did You Get Infected And Is There A Stigma?

What is insane is that most people have never bothered to get treated, partly because the infection takes years to fully wreak havoc. The other reason is the standard of care with a combination of drugs—pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin—causes flu-like symptoms that last for almost a year, and usually cures only 30-40 percent of patients. Essentially, most people figure the treatment is worse than the disease. Combined with the millions unaware of the infection, the potential for a health catastrophe could quickly become a morbid reality.

While people on Wall Street like to embrace a simple storyline with clear winners and losers, the hepatitis C virus is one tricky adversary. Like HIV, it has a tendency to mutate and develop resistance capabilities, whenever scientists throw a new antiviral drug against it. So there isn’t likely to be a single magic bullet. The most likely route to success is with a combination of two, three, or maybe four antiviral drugs that attack the virus from different angles, making it much harder for the bug to mutate and escape one drug. Now that there is a safety net in the form of the new protease inhibitors, will the infected take advantage if it? And what of the millions unaware that they are infected? How can they be helped?

For the First Time, There Is A Safety Net For HCV. Will It Be Trusted?

The new Protease Inhibitors raised the bar very high, by getting cure rates up to around 80 percent. Doctors are certainly eager to get rid of the nasty interferon part of the regimen, but they will only do that when a new regimen can do at least as well on cure rates. Without question, the bar on the safety net is set quite high already.

This Is What Is Needed To Stem The Tide - Mount Sinai Medical Center Launches Initiative to Erase the Stigma of Hepatitis C and Encourage Everyone to Get Tested

Being tested for the Hepatitis C virus is essential because it is so easy to miss and the incubation period of the disease is so long without actual physical effects or sickness. Although Mount Sinai Medical Center's Dr. Douglas Dieterich, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Liver Diseases and former Hepatitis C patient, believes the number of undiagnosed Hepatitis C patients is over 2 million, I feel that number should be expanded to close to 4 million. 

With the incredibly long incubation period and the multiple infections caused in the past by blood transfusions and in hospital procedures, the number will turn out to be much higher than expected. Since the virus can have an incubation period of 20 to 40 years, imagine how many innocent Americans could have been exposed before the blood supply was properly screened on a consistent basis. Remember that screening only began in America in May of 1990 when the FDA approved a test to screen the nation's blood supply. It took longer than expected for such a test to become a normative procedure in every hospital and clinic across the country. As a result, many people were accidentally infected in the 1990s. 

Since 2007, more people have died from HCV than from HIV. Such a statistic is astounding. What is even more frightening is that 4 times as many people will be die of complications from the Hepatitis C virus in 2020 than died in 2010. A fourfold increase is downright terrifying. Indeed, HCV is a modern American plague that needs to be addressed today. Yes, it is difficult to transmit and can only be transmitted through blood, but the number of people already infected have reached plague numbers. Once over 1% of a population is infected with a disease, it properly can be referred to as a plague.

NEW YORK, NY, Nov 16, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX)

The Mount Sinai Medical Center has embarked on a new mission to educate the public about Hepatitis C and urge more Americans to be tested for this "silent killer." While two million people in the US suffer from Hepatitis C, an additional two million are undiagnosed, putting them at risk for devastating long-term effects. Through an important video program, The Mount Sinai Medical Center's Dr. Douglas Dieterich, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Liver Diseases and former Hepatitis C patient, urges people to take charge of their health by getting tested for the virus, even if no symptoms are present. 

Did you know that not all patients are IV drug or intranasal cocaine user? Other ways to contract the virus include: body piercings, tattoos, manicures, pedicures, or even while playing sports such as boxing and rugby.

How Did You Get Infected? So Many Innocents are so Terribly Surprised!

The virus can creep along very silently, presenting no symptoms or abnormal liver test results for 30-40 years--Hepatitis C is spread by blood to blood contact. If left undetected, the virus can lead to advanced scarring of the liver, or a condition known as cirrhosis, and eventually cause liver failure or other major complications including liver cancer--About 4 times as many people will die in 2020 from Hepatitis C then in 2010. "Many people around the world, probably the majority got it, through the fault of the health care system. They got infected needles from vaccines or other medical devices when they were in the medical world," says Dr. Dieterich.

Along with shattering the stigma surrounding the Hepatitis C virus, Dr. Dieterich wants patients to understand that testing positive for the virus is not a death sentence if caught early. Dr. Dieterich himself contracted the virus in 1977 while attending medical school. He accidentally stuck himself with a needle infected with Hepatitis C and suffered from a rare, but acute reaction. Frustrated with his diagnosis and lack of options to treat it, Dr. Dieterich dedicated his career to studying Hepatitis C and finding effective treatment options for those diagnosed. 

He was cured in 1998 after an 18-month regimen of daily interferon injections and Ribavirin -- an anti-viral drug that was unavailable at the time of his diagnosis. While he was lucky, he knew there was much more work to be done. Today patients have access to new, FDA-approved protease inhibitors that bring the cure rate to 80 percent. "If we can treat you, we can cure you almost all of the time. So go get tested before it's too late," says Dr. Dieterich