Pubdate: Sat, 08 Jan 2005
Source: New York City Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Newsday, Inc.
Contact: http://cf.newsday.com/newsdayemail/email.cfm
Website: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/printedition/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3362
Author: Delthia Ricks

HEPATITIS C POSES THREAT OF BIG CRISIS

The prevalence of hepatitis C is growing citywide and could spawn an 
epidemic of staggering proportions unless steps are taken now, health 
experts said Friday.

Doctors, researchers, community activists and people with the infection 
testified in Manhattan before members of two state Assembly committees 
asking legislators to take action to prevent an unprecedented increase in 
the blood-borne disease within a decade. The infection can cause 
irrevocable liver damage. Experts say an epidemic could overwhelm public 
and private health systems and overload waiting lists for transplantable 
livers.

"This is just the start of a tidal wave that is going to hit in 2015 to 
2020," said Dr. Alain Litwin, an infectious-disease expert from Albert 
Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx. Litwin and other doctors said 
they know an epidemic is in the making because hepatitis C is being 
diagnosed with increasing frequency, and is the No. 1 opportunistic 
infection causing death in people with AIDS throughout the city.

An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people in the city may be infected, experts 
said, and many may be unaware because of the disorder's long latency. 
Symptoms can take up to 20 years to manifest.

"There is potential for a crisis in the city and the state," said Dr. Isaac 
Weisfuse, deputy commissioner of infectious disease control of the New York 
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Weisfuse attributed the 
growing problem to an increasing use of the street-drug crystal 
methamphetamine. Sharing needles and other drug paraphernalia is spreading 
the virus at an alarming rate, he said.

Experts Friday argued that, statewide, hundreds of thousands of other cases 
of hepatitis C are probably going undiagnosed, and that legislators should 
put strong outreach plans in place to provide drug counseling and 
treatment. The infection can be effectively controlled with medications 
when caught early.

Weisfuse said the rising number of cases in New York mirrors a national 
trend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates within a 
decade there will be a 279 percent increase in the incidence of liver 
damage nationwide due to hepatitis C, a 528 percent increase in the need 
for transplantation, and a 223 percent increase in the liver-related death 
rate.

Hepatitis C is one in a family of infectious viruses that attack the liver. 
Hepatitis A and B, whose prevalence also is rising in New York, are 
preventable through vaccines. All three can be transmitted through blood, 
by sharing needles, for example. Hepatitis C and B also can be transmitted 
sexually. Hepatitis A is noteworthy as a contaminant of food and water.

Community activists Friday called on state legislators to increase funding 
for vaccine programs to aid the uninsured. But while they sought greater 
access to vaccinations, they sounded their strongest pleas for help with 
hepatitis C.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman