Be honest, now. Were you prone to risky behavior in your youth? The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta has news for Baby Boomers: better get a Hepatitis C test.
Hepatitis C, identified in 1989, is a virus transmitted through the blood. It can cause serious liver disease like cirrhosis and liver cancer, which is the fastest-rising cause of cancer related deaths. Hep C infections are a leading cause of liver transplants in the US.
About 15,000 Americans die each year from hepatitis C-related illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines suggesting the one-time Hep C test are based on a study that shows many Baby Boomers got infected years ago and still don’t know they carry the disease. The CDC estimates that around 3.2 million Americans are chronically infected with Hep C.
To give you an idea of how serious this is, Hep C is about 4 times more common than HIV.
Because Boomers got infected long ago, the CDC is recommending anyone born between 1945 and 1965 get the test. It can take years for the liver-destroying disease to produce symptoms, so many people don’t know they have Hep C and their liver is slowly being damaged. I found this website to have a good explanation of both liver function and hepititis.
The liver, a thre3 pound pinkish-brown organ, is the largest gland in the body. It helps with drug detoxification, stores sugars and synthesizes plasma proteins to help regular blood clotting. The liver can naturally regenerate, so that as little as 25% of a liver can regenerate into a whole new liver.
Boomers are at increased risk because of blood transfusions before blood testing (1992), hospital exposure and risky behaviors. Risky behaviors include needle use and rough sexual exposure. For Baby Boomers who went through their teens and 20s during the sexual revolution, AIDS was still unknown and birth control had given rise to sexual freedom that usually didn’t include background checks on partners – or their previous romantic encounters.
Other possible routes of infection and viral spread could be tattoos and piercings, shared razor blades and toothbrushes, or cocaine-sniffing straws.
Routine blood tests should help doctors discover and treat the disease. According to the CDC statement, 1 in 30 Baby Boomers is infected with Hepatitis C and doesn’t know it. That could be more than 800,000 individuals. The CDC says that early treatment can cure about 75% of these people. The recommendations for testing were issued because the rate of death from Hep C-related diseases nearly doubled in America from 1999-2007.
Hepatitis C can destroy the liver. Here's a medical illustration of the anatomy of the liver, gallbladder, and biliary system from an anterior (front) view, including the esophagus, liver, gall bladder, stomach, cystic duct, common hepatic duct, common bile duct, stomach, pylorus, duodenum, pancreas, and small intestine. Also shown are the cystic artery, left and right hepatic arteries, common hepatic arteries, and celiac trunk. --- Image by © Visuals Unlimited/Corbis