At the top of the rock 'n' roll, drugs, sexual liberation, and unkempt hair, baby boomers are also eligible for hepatitis C virus (HCV) as a defining characteristic of their generation. A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that all Americans born between 1945 and 1965 receive HCV test.
An estimated 2.7 million to 3.9 million people in the United States are infected with this deadly virus liver-damaging and sometimes. CDC estimated that almost 75% of the infected population is from the baby boom generation: 3.25% of people born in this "birth cohort" positive test for HCV, which is five times higher than adults born before 1945 or after 1965. men are twice as likely to be infected than women, and the prevalence among black men (8.12%) far exceeds than white (4.05%) and Mexican-Americans males (3.41%).
"We do not think all [baby boomer] needs to run and see their primary care provider and get tested immediately but they should not put this off for years either, "says Bryce Smith CDC, a social scientist who authored lead recommendations published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "The sooner it can happen, the more lives we will be able to save."
There are many unknowns about HCV, its transmission routes to its epidemiology. HCV was only identified in 1988 and virus surveillance system is much less robust than that following HIV infection in the country. However, CDC estimates that in 1980, the virus has infected an average of 230,000 Americans each year. It spreads mainly through blood and blood products; injecting drug users, transplant recipients, and hemophiliacs were hardest hit. The virus causes cirrhosis in about 20% of those infected for over 20 years, many need liver transplants to survive and it is the leading cause of liver cancer in this country. toxic and expensive drug treatments have cured the infection in a small percentage of infected people, but new, powerful and safer antiviral recently on the market that promise to have a much wider impact. There is no vaccine against HCV.
Several factors have led to a sharp drop cases after 190, the year of a blood test for HCV was introduced. The virtually eliminated blood test spread through transfusions and blood products. Injecting drug users also saw declining rates of infection because the virus had "saturated" the population, and because, in the wake of the epidemic of HIV booming, many communities have started programs exchange of needles and syringes to make safer injection. In 2010, the estimated number of new infections in the United States was only 17,000.
As Smith and colleagues explain in the report, studies have shown that 45% to 85% of those infected with HCV in the United States do not know they carry the virus. An estimated 45% of people who learn they are infected report without known risk factor for acquiring HCV. "People do not know the different ways they might be able to acquire hepatitis C, and that is really the point of just testing everyone in that [baby boomer] birth cohort," says Smith. "It is worthwhile to recognize that all these exhibitions happened in the 70s and 80s, and memories can not be that good."
HCV can live outside the body for a week-HIV, however, died within minutes, which means that the transmission can easily happen by sharing a toothbrush, razor blade, or straw for snorting drugs. "Hepatitis C is a highly resistant virus," notes Smith. Transmission can also occur from infected mother to child and unsterilized tattoo needles. Researchers still debate the importance of sexual transmission, although that those who reported having had more than 20 partners were 4.5 times increased risk. "We are not sure whether because of sexual behavior itself or if it is a proxy for other behaviors" said Smith.
CDC evaluated several birth cohorts over the past four years and determined that universal screening of baby boomers was the most profitable strategy for the detection of HCV infections undiagnosed in the United States. Models predict that, in the absence of improved screening and treatment over the next 40 to 50 years, nearly 2 million Americans will develop cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma afflict 400,000 others, and complications HCV kill about 1 million people.
Until 2011, the treatment of HCV invoked alpha interferon and ribavirin, drugs that have serious side effects and work through indirect mechanisms and a little blurry. This year, two protease inhibitors came on the market that directly attack the virus and cure rates have doubled among infected people who have used them. clinical trials underway with 20 other so-called direct-acting antivirals have been even more impressive results against HCV, and researchers are hopeful that cure this devastating disease will become routine, but only if people know they are infected and get treatment.
* Correction 24:37 October 1 :. The first test for hepatitis C was introduced in 190, not 1992 as previously written
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