Baby Boomers Need Hepatitis C Testing

The CDC has released a report, stating all U.S. baby boomers should get tested for Hepatitis C. It says one in 30 baby boomers-- the generation born from 1945 to 1965-- has been infected with Hepatitis C, and most don't even know it. "People often don't know they have it when we initially diagnose them," says Dr. Brendon Mccollom, Mercy Clinic. More than two-million U.S. baby boomers are infected with the disease.

Fox 25's Kisha Henry spoke with health officials who say, Hepatitis C causes serious liver disease, including liver cancer- which is the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related deaths, and the leading cause of liver transplants in the U.S. Dr. Dale Claflin, Medical Director of the Oklahoma City County Health Department says, it's estimated there are over 800,000 people in the U.S. who do not know they have Hepatitis C. "If that's the case, 120-thousand of those people will die," he says.

Hepatitis C is primarily a blood-borne disease, which can spread through a number of ways, like shared needles and drug use, sexual transmission and non-professional tattoos. But, doctors caution against focusing on the list of causes. "If we focus on those types of things, people will go through and say, I didn't do this, I didn't do this, I didn't do this... I don't need to be tested," says Dr. Claflin.

Doctors say, baby boomers should schedule a one-time blood test for the disease. Studies show many baby boomers were infected with the virus decades ago, but they do not perceive themselves as being "at risk," so they've never been screened. But, the dangers of not getting tested are deadly. More than 15-thousand Americans, most of them baby boomers, die each year from Hepatitis C. It has been called a "silent killer," because it can live in the liver for years, without any symptoms, and slowly destroy the organ. "The earlier we find it, the treatment for it is pretty non-evasive and the cure-rate is much higher," says Dr. Mccollom.Baby Boomers Need Hepatitis C Testing

Posted: Saturday, August 18 2012, 09:27 PM CDT