2012-08-17T00:00:00Z CDC: Boomers should get hep C test Arizona Daily Star
More than 15,000 Americans per year die from hepatitis C and most of them are in the baby boomer generation.
That's why the federal government is recommending that anyone born from 1945 to 1965 get a one-time hepatitis C blood test.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the recommendation Thursday, moving the boomer generation into the high-risk category of people who should be tested. Baby boomers are about five times more likely than other American adults to be infected with the disease, officials said.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by a blood-borne virus.
The one-time test could identify 800,000 more Americans with Hepatitis C and help prevent liver cancer and liver transplants, CDC director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said.
While newly available treatments can cure the majority of people treated for hepatitis C, most people don't seek medical care because they don't know they are infected, he told reporters in a telebriefing Thursday morning.
Indeed, the state health department says about 100,000 Arizonans are infected, but that nearly half of them don't know they have it.
Public health officials say most insurers will cover the cost of the one-time hepatitis C test. Medicare-eligible seniors can get tested as part of their routine care.
Prices for the test can range from $30 to $150, officials with the Arizona Department of Health Services said.
Several private providers and urgent-care centers, or walk-in clinics such as Walgreens and CVS, are offering reasonably priced tests, officials said.
Arizonans also may access sliding fee services for patients at community health clinics like El Rio Community Health Center and St. Elizabeth's Health Center in Tucson.
Hepatitis C is spread by exposure to blood from an infected person, such as through a blood transfusion or sharing needles. The risk of sexual transmission has not been thoroughly studied but it appears to be small. There is no evidence that the hepatitis C virus can be transmitted by casual contact. Transmission from mother to child appears to be uncommon.
The disease is not spread by breast feeding, sneezing, coughing, food or water, or sharing utensils or drinking glasses.
State health officials list the following risk factors for contracting hepatitis C: anyone who had a blood transfusion or solid organ transplant before July 1992; anyone who received blood clotting factor before 1987; anyone who as ever been on long-term kidney dialysis; anyone who has ever been exposed to known hepatitis C-contaminated blood and anyone who has ever injected street drugs, even once.
More information
For more information : www.cdc.gov
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