hellyeahscarleteen:

The incidence of hepatitis C infection is increasing among adolescents and young adults in Pennsylvania, just as it has in other areas in the United States, according to surveillance data for 2003 through 2010.

During that 7-year period, the number of reports of newly recognized confirmed or probable cases of hepatitis C past or present infection among those aged 15-34 years increased from 1,384 to 2,393, representing a near doubling of the rate of cases (from 43 to 72) per 100,000 population, Dr. Sameh W. Boktor reported in a poster at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The rates in other age groups, however, declined during this time period.

For example, the overall rate of newly reported cases for all age groups combined declined from 85 to 72 per 100,000 population, and the rate of cases among those aged 45-64 years declined from 185 to 142 per 100,000 population, said Dr. Boktor of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Harrisburg.

The increases in the adolescent and young adult age groups are likely caused by high-risk behaviors, such as intravenous drug use and unprotected sex between men – and, to a lesser degree – unprotected heterosexual sex.

Read the rest at Family Practice News here.

missmd2be:

“More Americans now die from hepatitis C infection than from HIV, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The rate of HIV deaths has been falling while the rate for hepatitis C has been rising and the two curves crossed each other in 2007, according to Kathleen Ly, MPH, and colleagues.

In that year, they wrote in the Feb. 21 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, 12,734 deaths were blamed on HIV, compared with 15,106 attributed to hepatitis C.

The analysis, based on death certificates from 1999 through 2007, also showed that the death rate for hepatitis B has been falling slightly, although it was the underlying or contributing cause of 1,815 deaths in 2007.

The figures probably represent “only a fraction of a larger burden of morbidity and mortality from viral hepatitis,” Ly and colleagues argued, noting that chronic hepatitis infection — both B and C — is most prevalent among people born from 1945 through 1965.

Most of those with the disease do not know they are infected and they are now reaching the age where they are at risk for hepatitis-related diseases and death, they noted.

Indeed, in 2007, 73.4% of hepatitis C-related deaths were among people ages 45 through 64, while 59.4% of hepatitis B-related deaths occurred in that age group, they found.”

http://www.medpagetoday.com/InfectiousDisease/GeneralInfectiousDisease/31272

rowenaopinionl:

The Hepatitis C Sourcebook
Since it was first discovered in 1989, millions of people have been diagnosed with hepatitis C. Unlike other strains of the disease, hepatitis C is almost always chronic, and more than four million Americans have been diagnosed as chronic cases. The Hepatitis C Sourcebook equips readers with everything you need to know about this silent killer, including information on who is at risk, who should be tested, the pros and cons of available treatments, and more. Take Action! Get it immediately!!

shychemist:

Stem Cells Could Drive Hepatitis Research Forward

Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that can cause inflammation and organ failure, has different effects on different people. But no one is sure why some people are very susceptible to the infection, while others are resistant.

Scientists believe that if they could study liver cells from different people in the lab, they could determine how genetic differences produce these varying responses. However, liver cells are difficult to obtain and notoriously difficult to grow in a lab dish because they tend to lose their normal structure and function when removed from the body.

Now, researchers from MIT, Rockefeller University and the Medical College of Wisconsin have come up with a way to produce liver-like cells from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, which are made from body tissues rather than embryos; the liver-like cells can then be infected with hepatitis C. Such cells could enable scientists to study why people respond differently to the infection.

This is the first time that scientists have been able to establish an infection in cells derived from iPSCs — a feat many research teams have been trying to achieve. The new technique, described this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also eventually enable “personalized medicine”: Doctors could test the effectiveness of different drugs on tissues derived from the patient being treated, and thereby customize therapy for that patient.

The new study is a collaboration between Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT; Charles Rice, a professor of virology at Rockefeller; and Stephen Duncan, a professor of human and molecular genetics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Click title to read more.

thedigitaldad-rants-on:

Primarily through contact with infected blood. Common routes of infection include:

• Receiving blood, blood products, and organs before June 1992 (yes! > 20 years ago)
• Sharing razors, toothbrushes and other infected personal household items that may have blood on them
• Use of unsterilized and infected needles or ink for tattooing and piercing
• Intranasal cocaine use through shared paraphernalia
• Sexual contact with an HCV-infected person (unless tested for it your partner wouldn’t know!)
• Birth to an HCV-infected mother!
• The use of shared or unsterilized needles and injection equipment (e.g. injection drug use)
• Hemodialysis for kidney failure
• Accidental exposure to a needle contaminated with infected blood

gregoryhomepaget:

Hepatitis C and the Working Man
From the recipients perspective, experience Interferon and Ribavirin treatment from one patients perspective. This treatment is debilitating enough it usually requires patients to take a leave of absence, and less than a third of the patients make it through the first time.The author felt much of this was due to the body’s reactions. The symptoms are maddeningly inconsistent, not only from patient to patient, but from day to day. With this book, hopefully potential patients will have a better understanding of what they’re committing to, or have already committed to. Take Action! Get it immediately!!