Showing posts with label HEPATITIS C AND LIVER CANCER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HEPATITIS C AND LIVER CANCER. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2012

HEPATITIS C TESTING RECOMMENDATIONS

FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
PERCENT HEPATITIS C INFECTIONS BY AGE AND SEX


Digital Press Kit
Expanded Hepatitis C Testing Recommendations

To identify more hidden infections, provide prompt and appropriate care and treatment, and avoid tens of thousands of hepatitis C-related illnesses and deaths, CDC now recommends that all U.S. baby boomers get a one-time test for the hepatitis C virus.
Hepatitis C is an unrecognized health crisis in the United States. This life-threatening infection affects an estimated 3.2 million Americans, most of whom are "baby boomers" (those born from 1945 through 1965). One in 30 baby boomers has been infected with hepatitis C, and most don’t know it. 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.


More than 15,000 Americans, most of them baby boomers, die each year from hepatitis C-related illness, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer, and deaths have been increasing steadily for more than a decade and are projected to grow significantly in coming years.


CDC estimates one-time hepatitis C testing of baby boomers could identify more than 800,000 additional people with the virus. And with newly available therapies that can cure up to 75 percent of infections, expanded testing – along with linkage to appropriate care and treatment – would prevent the costly consequences of liver cancer and other chronic liver diseases and could save more than 120,000 lives.

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