Boomers at High Risk For Hep C

A health crisis, affecting millions of Americans, is looming and it has experts fearful that without early detection, scores of Baby Boomers infected will have waited too late in the progression of the disease for a cure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges all Baby Boomers born between 1945 and 1965 to get tested for Hepatitis C.  An estimated 1 in 30 Boomers are infected with Hep C, a serious blood-born disease that can cause liver damage, liver cancer and death.  Often symptoms do not appear until the liver damage is advanced and cannot be treated.  And many older adults have no clue they have been infected for more than 20 years.

Hep C is the leading cause of liver cancer in the United States and between 1990 and 2015, the number of deaths from liver cancer increase by 60 per cent while the deaths from cancer overall declined 26 per cent.

There is some good news among all this panic; if discovered early, Hep C can be cured.   However, Hepatitis testing is not a part of normal blood work done at an annual check up.  It must be specifically requested and can be tested with an antibody test or a viral load test.  If a diagnosis of Hep C is made, additional tests by a specialist, including blood work, ultrasound or a liver biopsy can help determine the extent of liver damage.

Hepatitis C is transmitted by blood contact; recreational drug use, sharing razors, sexual contact with an infected person, unsterilized tattoo equipment and blood transfusions or organ transplants before 1992 are all ways the virus is spread.   Health care workers who were stuck by a needle in their jobs could also be a risk for Hep C.

While it isn’t clear why so many Baby Boomers are at risk of having contracted the virus, this generation may have experimented with drug use while in college or had unprotected sex in their youth.  Whatever the cause,  older adults should not assume they aren’t infected because they haven’t any symptoms.  By the time jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes) or other symptoms including dark urine, nausea, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, joint pain or gray-colored stools are noticed, the damage is done.  Short of a liver transplant,  treatment options are limited at this stage of the disease.

New treatments for Hep C have recently become available and cure rates are much higher but these drugs can be very costly.  According to a March 21, 2017 CBC News report, most people have a 95 per cent chance of being cured over a 12-week treatment period.   However, treatment with these new drugs can cost between $55,000 and $150,000.

To learn more about Hep C, testing and treatment, visit the CDC website by following this link.