Hepatitis C Awareness

A recent study showed that 65% of veterans using a San Francisco Veterans Administration facility tested positive for Hepatitis C. This is in contrast to 2% of the population at large. There should be more questions asked about how the veterans contracted Hepatitis C at thirty times the rate of the general population and what the veterans administration is going to do to help.  It is estimated that as many as 4 to 5 million Americans are infected with Hepatitis C.   The death rate due to complications from Hepatitis C is expected to quadruple in the next 10 years.

Prevention
According to Centers for Disease Control, hepatitis C virus is spread by exposure to blood, either through the skin or by injection:

* Injection drug use (currently the most common means of HCV transmission in the United States)
* Receipt of donated blood, blood products, and organs (prior to 1992 when blood screening became the norm)
* Needle stick injuries in healthcare settings
* Birth to an HCV-infected mother

HCV can also be spread infrequently through

* Sharing personal items contaminated with infectious blood, such as razors or toothbrushes
(an inefficient vectors of transmission)
* Other healthcare procedures that involve invasive procedures, such as injections
(usually recognized in the context of outbreaks)
* Sharing drug products via insufflation

Strategies such as the provision of new needles and syringes, and education about safer drug injection procedures,
greatly decrease the risk of hepatitis C spreading between injecting drug users.

No vaccine protects against contracting hepatitis C, or helps to treat it.
Vaccines are under development.