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Hepatitis C poses threat of
big Crisis
http://www.newsday.com/news/
BY DELTHIA RICKS
STAFF WRITER
January 8, 2005
The prevalence of hepatitis C is growing citywide and could
spawn an epidemic of staggering proportions unless steps are
taken now, health experts said Friday.
Doctors, researchers, community activists and people with the
infection testified in Manhattan before members of two state
Assembly committees asking legislators to take action to prevent
an unprecedented increase in the blood-borne disease within a
decade. The infection can cause irrevocable liver damage.
Experts say an epidemic could overwhelm public and private
health systems and overload waiting lists for transplantable
livers.
"This is just the start of a tidal wave that is going to hit in
2015 to 2020," said Dr. Alain Litwin, an infectious-disease
expert from Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx.
Litwin and other doctors said they know an epidemic is in the
making because hepatitis C is being diagnosed with increasing
frequency, and is the No. 1 opportunistic infection causing
death in people with AIDS throughout the city.
An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people in the city may be
infected, experts said, and many may be unaware because of the
disorder's long latency. Symptoms can take up to 20 years to
manifest.
"There is potential for a crisis in the city and the state,"
said Dr. Isaac Weisfuse, deputy commissioner of infectious
disease control of the New York City Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene. Weisfuse attributed the growing problem to an
increasing use of the street-drug crystal methamphetamine.
Sharing needles and other drug paraphernalia is spreading the
virus at an alarming rate, he said.
Experts Friday argued that, statewide, hundreds of thousands of
other cases of hepatitis C are probably going undiagnosed, and
that legislators should put strong outreach plans in place to
provide drug counseling and treatment. The infection can be
effectively controlled with medications when caught early.
Weisfuse said the rising number of cases in New York mirrors a
national trend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates within a decade there will be a 279 percent increase
in the incidence of liver damage nationwide due to hepatitis C,
a 528 percent increase in the need for transplantation, and a
223 percent increase in the liver-related death rate.
Hepatitis C is one in a family of infectious viruses that attack
the liver. Hepatitis A and B, whose prevalence also is rising in
New York, are preventable through vaccines. All three can be
transmitted through blood, by sharing needles, for example.
Hepatitis C and B also can be transmitted sexually. Hepatitis A
is noteworthy as a contaminant of food and water.
Community activists Friday called on state legislators to
increase funding for vaccine programs to aid the uninsured. But
while they sought greater access to vaccinations, they sounded
their strongest pleas for help with hepatitis C.
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