Hepatitis C deaths expected to triple in next 10 years in U.S.

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|| Health News ||

 

June 03, 2005

 

Hepatitis C deaths expected to triple in next 10 years in U.S.

 

The number of hepatitis C-related deaths in the United States will triple during

the next 10 years, with as many as 30,000 Americans dying annually from problems

caused by the disease, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The

Wall Street Journal reports that about 8,000 to 10,000 Americans already die

each year from the disease. CDC officials say that many of the people dying from

hepatitis C-related complications contracted the virus between the 1960s and the

1980s. Because the virus typically lies dormant in the body for many years,

those infected with HCV in the 1990s or later will begin to experience symptoms

in the next decade.

 

HCV, a blood-borne virus, is transmitted through shared needles and blood

transfusions, and less commonly through unprotected sex. HCV is a common

coinfection among HIV-positive people, with as many as 25% of all HIV patients

also infected with hepatitis. As many as 5 million Americans are currently

infected with HCV; worldwide, there are an estimated 200 million people with

hepatitis C. There is no vaccine to prevent HCV infections, and current

treatments are effective for only about half of those patients who take them.

New treatments currently in clinical trials might offer better results, experts

say, but those drugs are still years away from Food and Drug Administration

review and approval.

 

 

 

 

 

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