Baby Boomers At Risk For Hepatitis C

MIAMI, Fla. — Tim Sardina, 56, has lived a colorful life, but the color started to fade in 1993.”I participated in a blood drive at work and they called me afterward and said ‘You need to see a doctor,’” said Sardina. Tests revealed he had Hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver.”I used to be a boxer and sometimes I would get cut and get transfusions, I guess that’s how it happened, but I really don’t know,” he said.Hepatitis C is spread by blood-to-blood transmission.The source can be a transfusion with tainted blood, sexual contact with an infected person, even sharing a toothbrush or a razor with someone who has “Hep C”.”Most of the people infected with this virus have no symptoms,” said Dr. Eugene Schiff, a liver specialist with Jackson Memorial Hospital. “Some express a sense of fatigue, but especially among older Americans, that’s usually nothing alarming.”Some cases of Hep C never advance, but others lead to cirrhosis of the liver; even liver cancer.The standard treatment of care involves two chemotherapy agents, ribavirin and interferon.”Problem is, we don’t at this point know which patients with Hep C will have the disease advance, so it’s really not possible to treat this early,” said Schiff.Schiff said studies are under way into new treatments that might put patients into remission with fewer side effects, which would offer hope to late-stage patients like Sardina.”Right now I’m stage 4 cirrhosis, but my doctor says as long as I have some liver function, I can keep going,” he said.

Tagged as: hepatitis, interferon, liver cancer, transfusion