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Hepatitis C

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2006 Jun. ~ 2006 Dec.: Health Center (ARCHIVES): Hepatitis C users admin

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Herckleperckle
Member

11-20-2003

Wednesday, August 02, 2006 - 9:30 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Herckleperckle a private message Print Post    
Source: Ivanhoe.com
Reported: June 24, 1999
Television News Service/Medical Breakthroughs
ŠIvanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. 1998



HEPATITIS C AND BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS



Many people are unaware that they may be infected with the potentially life-threatening hepatitis C virus (HCV). Experts believe that as many as four million people in the U.S. are infected, and blood transfusions prior to 1992 may account for as many as 300,000 of these cases.

HCV has an incubation period of between two to 26 weeks, at which point the patient typically experiences a silent and consequently unnoticed acute infection. Most acute HCV infections then result in a chronic infection. While the majority of those people exposed to HCV will become infected, only a minority will ever suffer from HCV-induced liver disease. This liver disease and/or jaundice can occur as much as 20 to 30 years after initial exposure to the virus.

Approximately half of all chronic liver disease is due to HCV. Studies have shown that of those who have contracted transfusion-related hepatitis, only 15 percent will suffer severe liver disease, known as cirrhosis. Of those, a third will eventually die from chronic HCV disease.

Interferon alpha is the therapy of choice for HCV infection. Unfortunately, only about half of the people treated will respond to interferon alpha. Non-responders can be treated with the new anti-viral drug, ribavarin, in conjunction with interferon alpha. Even with this new drug combination, however, 40 percent of these treated patients will show no improvement.

Due to the side effects from interferon therapy (which can include fever and a depressed immune response), the National Institutes of Health has recommended that only a subset of those people chronically-infected with HCV be placed on drug therapy. Generally, interferon therapy is recommended for individuals between the ages of 18 and 60 who have persistently elevated levels of liver enzymes, a detectable virus in their blood, a pathogenic liver biopsy and no contraindications for the therapy.

Fortunately, blood supplies are currently much safer than they have been in the past. Prior to 1992, one in four transfused patients were exposed to HCV. Current blood testing protocols have brought that number down to one in 100,000. The major risk factor for HCV infection today is the abuse of IV drugs.

However, the Food and Drug Administration is concerned about people who may have been exposed to HCV before the more effective blood screening protocols were in place. In an attempt to reach those people, the FDA has recommended a Lookback study that will notify those individuals who may have been exposed to HCV via blood transfusion prior to 1992. In the near future, as part of the program, blood centers and transfusion services will begin to notify people at risk and describe to them the health consequences and treatment options available to them.

Dr. Suzanne Cotter, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explains, "Blood transfusion services will be asked to look through their records to see if anyone who is HCV positive has given blood in the past. Then they will contact the physicians [of the blood recipients]."

Those individuals who have been exposed to HCV through earlier blood transfusions should then consult their own doctors to determine the optimal treatment. "Physicians recommend that exposed people come in, and their treatment will be on a case-by-case basis," says Dr. Cotter.

If you have not been contacted by your doctor, but are nonetheless concerned about previous exposure, experts recommend that you visit your physician for an HCV blood test. Experts discourage the use of blood donation as a means of screening for HCV infection.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Hepatitis Branch; Mailstop G-37
1600 Clifton Road, N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30333
Toll-free hot line 1-888-4 HEP CDC (443-7232)

L.J Tan, Ph.D.
American Medical Association
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 464-4147

Baby
Member

01-08-2006

Wednesday, August 02, 2006 - 10:40 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Baby a private message Print Post    
Thank you HP for taking the time to post this! As I have said, I received my transfusion in 1983 after needing a second spine fusion since the rod came out on it's own after the first fusion. And that is where I got the infected blood. We (docs and I didn't discover it until many years later).