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 "Hepatitis C has a severe impact on the health and
well-being of millions of Americans, especially baby boomers (those
born from 1945 through 1965)," Dr. Scott D. Holmberg told Reuters
Health in an email. He worked on the study at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.
"The new data from a nationally representative survey of the general
United States population (the National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey, or NHANES) found about 2.7 million people have
chronic hepatitis C infection," he added.
"This number should be considered a minimum estimate for those
infected in the U.S., because some populations known to be at high
risk for hepatitis C, such as those who are homeless or
incarcerated, are not included in the sample," Holmberg said.
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread through contact with
contaminated blood.
Baby boomers represent about 81 percent of chronically infected
people, Holmberg noted.
His team's study included roughly 30,000 people who participated in
NHANES between 2003 and 2010. As part of the survey, their blood was
drawn and tested for HCV.
The estimated prevalence of HCV infection was one percent among
people ages six and older, which corresponds to 2.7 million people
across the U.S.
Even more people had antibodies against the virus in their blood,
suggesting they had been exposed to it in the past.
People with HCV were more likely than those who had never been
infected to be in their 40s or 50s, male and black and to have been
born in the U.S., the authors reported in the Annals of Internal
Medicine. They were less likely be well-off or to have education
past high school.
Among young and middle-aged adults, those with chronic HCV infection
were more likely to have received a blood transfusion before
mandatory viral testing began in 1992. They were also more likely to
have ever injected illicit drugs or had 10 or more lifetime sexual
partners than similarly aged people who had never had HCV infection.
"Undiagnosed hepatitis C places millions at serious risk of liver
disease, cancer and death," Holmberg said. "Unfortunately, half or
more of those with hepatitis C do not know they are infected."
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He said it can be 20 or 30 years between when a person is
infected with the virus and when symptoms related to hepatitis C
begin to appear.
"This study underscores the importance of CDC and U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force recommendations that all persons born between
1945 and 1965, who face a prevalence of chronic hepatitis C
infection six times greater than other adults, should get tested at
least once for hepatitis C virus," Holmberg said.
"Getting tested, knowing your status, and, if infected, getting
linked to proper care and treatment are all essential to reducing
the burden of hepatitis C," he added.
Chronic HCV is typically treated with combinations of anti-viral
drugs.
"One finding of (this new) study was that only half of hepatitis
C-positive participants aged 20 to 59 years reported a history of
transfusion or illicit injection drug use," Mark H. Kuniholm told
Reuters Health in an email.
Kuniholm, from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New
York, has studied rates of HCV infection but wasn't involved in the
new research.
The data reinforce the idea that only testing people who would seem
to be at especially high risk "is unlikely to identify most U.S.
individuals with hepatitis C," he said.
Kuniholm echoed the CDC recommendation for screening. "All U.S.
adults, especially those adults born between 1945 and 1965, should
be offered hepatitis C diagnostic testing," he said.
___
Source: http://bit.ly/1e2JmUN
Annals of
Internal Medicine, online March 4, 2014.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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