Letter to the Editor: Hepatitis C: Why boomers should get tested

Editor:

While anyone can get tested for Hepatitis C, more than 75 percent of adults infected are baby boomers, people born from 1945-1965.

Baby boomers are five times more likely to have Hepatitis C. The reason baby boomers have higher rates of Hepatitis C is not completely understood. Most boomers are believed to have become infected in the 1970s and 1980s when rates of Hepatitis C were the highest.

Since people with Hepatitis C can live for decades without symptoms, many baby boomers are unknowingly living with an infection they got many years ago.

Hepatitis C is primarily spread through contact with blood from an infected person. Many baby boomers could have gotten infected from contaminated blood and blood products before the widespread screening of blood supply in 1992 and universal precautions were adopted.

Others may have become infected from injecting drugs, even if only once in the past.  Still, many baby boomers do not know how or when they were infected.

Hepatitis C is a serious liver disease that results from infection with the Hepatitis C virus. Some people who get infected with Hepatitis C are able to clear, or get rid of, the virus, but most people who get infected develop a chronic, or lifelong infection. Over time, chronic Hepatitis C can cause serious health problems including liver damage, cirrhosis, liver cancer and even death.  In fact, Hepatitis C is a leading cause of liver cancer and the leading cause of liver transplants.

How would someone know they have Hepatitis C? The only way to know if someone has Hepatitis C is to get tested. The Hepatitis C Antibody Test is now being offered at the Hill County Health Department.  The test looks for antibodies to the Hepatitis C virus. Antibodies are chemicals released into the bloodstream when someone gets infected.

For more information: talk to a health professional, call the Hill County Health Department, 265-5481, ext. 266.

Jessica Kennedy-Stiffarm, registered nurse

Hill County Health Department