In Case You Missed It
Dr. Douglas Dieterich discusses HCV
Should I be Tested?
Contrary to common belief, anyone can get hepatitis C – not just IV-drug users. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection. All it takes is blood-to-blood exposure for you to be at risk for contracting HCV. The good news is that all it takes is a simple blood test to see if you have the virus. If you catch it early, the chances of being cured are extremely high.
People who have high risk factors for hepatitis C should be routinely screened for HCV.
People who have high risk factors for hepatitis C should be routinely screened for HCV.
Risk factors include:
A history of using illicit drugs via injection or the nose
HIV, dialysis treatment, or elevated liver enzymes of unknown origin
Blood transfusion or transplantation prior to 1992
Children born to HCV-infected mothers
Health care workers after needle stick injury from known HCV patient
Individuals originating from a geographic region where HCV is prevalent, such as the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, or Egypt
People who have received tattoos from unlicensed tattoo parlors or received manicures and pedicures with tools that haven’t been properly sterilized and cleaned
A history of using illicit drugs via injection or the nose
HIV, dialysis treatment, or elevated liver enzymes of unknown origin
Blood transfusion or transplantation prior to 1992
Children born to HCV-infected mothers
Health care workers after needle stick injury from known HCV patient
Individuals originating from a geographic region where HCV is prevalent, such as the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, or Egypt
People who have received tattoos from unlicensed tattoo parlors or received manicures and pedicures with tools that haven’t been properly sterilized and cleaned
Treatment
With treatment, hepatitis C is curable.
Recently, the treatment of hepatitis C has been revolutionized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of two new drugs for the treatment of HCV. This marks the first major breakthrough in the advance in HCV treatment in the last decade. With these new treatments, physicians expect that the cure rate for HCV will rise from 40 percent to approximately 70 percent or higher, especially for newly diagnosed or treatment naïve patients (patients who have never been treated before for HVC).
At Mount Sinai, we were proud to have played a major role in the approval of this new class of drugs, known as protease inhibitors. And today we remain committed to finding new drugs that will improve the cure rate in more patients with HCV.
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