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HEPATITIS C - STATISTICS
Fall 98 pg. 7  American Liver Foundation
An estimated 3.5 million people are infected with the hepatitis C virus in the United States, many of them unaware of this, but the annual number of new cases has declined, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The CDC attributes this decline to a 23% drop in the use of contaminated needles by drug addicts in the last seven years. The percentage of cases involving sexual/household contact or those with multiple sex partners, in contracting HCV almost doubled from 6% to 13% during 1990-1993. The percentage of HCV cases, where it is uncertain how the person contracted the virus, increased slightly from 35% to 42%. 

"This is an iceberg-like disease," according to Leonard B. Seeff, M.D., Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. "That for every one person who has clinical evidence of disease, there are probably ten or 20 who don't have knowledge or have any indication that they are infected." 
In terms of race or ethnic background, blacks have the highest incidence rates per 100,000 population for acquiring hepatitis C, followed by American Indian/Alaskan natives, Hispanics and whites. 

Poor people, in studies cited by CDC and Dr. Seeff, seem to have the highest risk of infection. Miriam Alter, Ph.D., of the CDC's hepatitis section, believes that there are no other "routes of transmission" in the poor population. "But rather," she said, "they have other high-risk characteristics that place them at risk of infectious diseases like hepatitis C, such as high-risk sexual and drug use behavior that is not apparent upon interviewing the patients." 

The most efficient transmission of the hepatitis C virus, Dr. Alter 
said, is through the blood by the breaking of a person's skin, as in transfusions or needle sticks by accident, drug use or in tattooing. Other individuals at risk, Dr. Alter said, include hemodialysis patients and healthcare and other workers who have occupational exposures to blood. 

In one study at the inner city VA Hospital in Washington, D.C., one in five people admitted tested positive for HCV. Similar results (18%) were obtained at The John Hopkins University Hospital, located in Baltimore's inner city. 

Why more poor people are infected with HCV remains a mystery. 

"There is something coming from that group of individuals (poor people) that somehow promotes this transmission," Dr. Seeff said. Dr. Seeff raised the possibility of transmission through the use of shared razors and toothbrushes or the improper sterilization of a manicurist's scissors or a barber's straight razor. 

Studies on the risk of sexual transmission of HCV have been conflicting in their results, according to Craig Shapiro, M.D., of CDC, who presented his findings recently at the meeting of the American Association For The Study of Liver Diseases. 

Japanese and French studies have reported a low risk of sexual 
transmission, whereas a recent study of 27 clinical HCV Japanese patients showed that their spouses probably had a greater risk of being infected the longer they stayed married. But the study did not say definitely that the virus was transmitted sexually. 

"As far as sexual transmission," said Eugene R. Schiff, Director of the Center for the Study of Liver Diseases in Miami, "if we look at 
hepatitis B as compared with hepatitis C, the level of viremia 
(concentration of the virus) is much higher with hepatitis B. So 
therefore the virus spills out into the semen, saliva and vaginal 
secretions in a higher concentration. That's why it is thought that C is not commonly spread sexually, because the viremia is lower." 

Generally, liver specialists tell infected patients that if they are in 
a monogamous sexual situation the CDC recommends that they need not use protection because the risk of transmission is low. 

The risk of contracting hepatitis B or C through a transfusion is less than 1% now because of the use in the last three years of improved screening tests and the transition from a partially paid to an all volunteer donor system, according to Harvey G. Klein, M.D., Chief of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. 


CDC estimates the risk factor for transfusion-contracted HCV during the 1990-1993 period at 5%. 

"For hepatitis C we still have a lot to learn," Dr. Alter of CDC said. 
"Particularly in terms of the transmission of the disease. Studies to date have been inadequate to determine the risk of transmission, particularly in sexual, household and perinatal settings. So we have a lot of work left to do."

Please sign this petition

Description/History:
Hepatitis C is an incurable, non-preventable blood-borne virus which damages the liver. It can be fatal in almost 85% of infected persons, most from cirrhosis, others from liver cancer and autoimmune disease.

The many people who are infected are not sick, or are unaware that they even have it until, for instance, they donate blood.
Some people have had it for 25 years.

Infection can not only be passed by blood transfusions or by sharing needles but, ALSO, by sharing razors, toothbrushes, or nail clippers, from nail salons, barber shops, and tattoo/piercing parlors.

During the Vietnam Era, military persons were vaccinated in assembly line fashion. It is now being debated whether or not the government should be responsible for testing, medicating, and counseling all Veterans.

Most people associate Hepatitis with IV drug use, unsafe and promiscuous sex, or by drinking unclean water. (It is extremely rare that Hepatitis C is passed on by sex).

The public needs to know ALL the facts.

Did you know that nearly 5 times as many people are infected with Hepatitis C than those infected with AIDS/HIV? And that experts believe that, this year, 9 million, in the U.S. alone are unaware that they are infected?

This petition asks that public service announcements be frequently heard and that the announcements should NOT only be targeted at blood transfusion recipients, IV drug users, or AIDS/HIV victims, but, to all Veterans and, ALSO, to the "Average Joe", who might share a razor with their spouse.

How many husbands shave their pregnant wives' legs because she cannot reach her ankles? How many teenagers decide to shave for the first time, using Dad or Mom's razor, unsuspecting that the razor may be contaminated by blood of a parent who, unknowingly, has been infected for at least 25 years?

The facts need to be heard about this epidemic.

Please sign this petition http://www.gopetition.com/info.php?currentregion=0&petid=755 

This petition will also appear on the razor transmission link. Please only sign once.

 
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Revised: January 13, 2006 .All information is posted without profit or payment for research and is for educational purposes only, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107

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