All baby boomers should get hepatitis C test -CDC
All baby boomers should be tested at least once for the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus, according to proposed guidelines from U.S. health officials released on Friday.
The often-undiagnosed virus is transmitted through contaminated blood. While infection rates have dropped dramatically since the early 1990s - due in part to the introduction of blood and organ screening - many older adults are still at risk, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the draft guidelines.
According to the CDC, one in 30 baby boomers - the generation born from 1945 through 1965 - has been infected with hepatitis C, and most do not know it.
A one-time, cost-effective blood test would “identify hundreds of thousands of hidden infections,” said Dr John Ward, director of CDC’s division of viral hepatitis.
He likened the proposal to existing age-related guidelines on screening for diseases including breast cancer, cervical cancer and High cholesterol.
Hepatitis C Statistics: An Overview
Hepatitis C is an infection of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). There are two types of hepatitis C - acute and chronic.
About 15 percent of cases end up being acute hepatitis C, in which the immune system is able to completely destroy the virus. For about 85 percent of infected people, however, the immune system is not able to completely get rid of the hepatitis C virus, and they end up having a long-term liver infection. This is called chronic hepatitis C.
Approximately 300 million people worldwide are infected with the hepatitis C virus. About 3.9 million people in the United States have chronic hepatitis C. This represents about 1.8 percent of the population.
Hepatitis C causes serious liver diseases, including liver cancer - the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related deaths - and is the leading cause of liver transplants in the United States.
The CDC said it believes routine blood tests will address the largely preventable consequences of the disease, especially in light of newly available therapies that can cure around 75 percent of infections.
Worldwide Prevalence
Hepatitis C is a global disease. While not every nation in the world has had adequate means to survey its population for incidence of the virus, enough statistics have been compiled to demonstrate the enormous threat posed by hepatitis C. Hepatitis C, in combination with hepatitis B, now accounts for 75% of all cases of liver disease around the world.
Hepatitis C shows significant genetic variation in worldwide populations, evidence of its frequent rates of mutation and rapid evolution. There are six basic genotypes of HCV, with 15 recorded subtypes, which vary in prevalence across different regions of the world. Each of these major genotypes may differ significantly in their biological effects - in terms of replication, mutation rates, type and severity of liver damage, and detection and treatment options - however, these differences are not yet clearly understood.
Figures from epidemiological studies in different regions of the world show wide variance in HCV prevalence patterns, though it is clearly evident that the incidence of HCV is higher among less developed nations. The prevalence of hepatitis C is lowest in Northern European countries, including Great Britain, Germany and France. According to one survey, the prevalence of HCV antibodies in blood donors averages less than 1% for the region. (However, other studies have suggested that rates of infection may be much higher, comparable to rates in the U.S. - approximately 2.5%). Higher rates have been reported in Southeast Asian countries, including India (1.5%), Malaysia (2.3%), and the Philipines (2.3%). The incidence in Japan was 1.2%. Alarming rates were reported for many African nations, reaching as high as 14.5% in Egypt.
These studies, when added together, suggest that over 200 million people around the world are infected with hepatitis C - an overall incidence of around 3.3% of the world’s population. Statistically, as many people are infected with HCV as are with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Without large scale efforts to contain the spread of HCV and treat infected populations, the death rate from hepatitis C will surpass that of AIDS by the turn of the century and will only get worse.
The field has attracted broad interest with two new hepatitis C drugs - Incivek from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc and Merck & Co’s Victrelis - reaching the U.S. market in the past year.
Companies including Gilead Sciences Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co aim to improve on those medicines with pills that do not need to be combined with injections of immune system boosters, which have side effects that can deter patients.
More than 15,000 Americans, most of them baby boomers, die each year from hepatitis C-related illness, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.