PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE

Hepatitis C in Baby Boomers Remains Silent Epidemic

Hepatitis C in Baby Boomers Remains Silent Epidemic

Introduction

The article “Hepatitis C in baby boomers remain silent epidemic” was published on 2nd March, 2012 by CBC News. The article stresses that due to increasing deaths of baby boomers in U.S that got infected with Hepatitis C unsuspectingly; those individuals should get tests for Hepatitis C on a routine basis. Furthermore, the article reveals the bitter fact that HIV infection figures have been surpassed the increasing Hepatitis C infection rates. The article even suggests that this causality increase in U.S baby boomers emphasizes on the detection and treatment of diseases related to Liver in Canada (www.cbc.ca). This paper briefly discusses the causes and severity of the issue o baby boomers getting affected by Hepatitis C. Moreover, this paper discusses the interventions through which this health issue can be prevented or how its severity could be decreased. In addition to this, in the concluding section the paper gives detailed suggestions for additional prevention efforts to address the issue of Hepatitis C in the baby boomers.

Discussion and Analysis

With about 5,000 new cases per year, the numbers of people infected with hepatitis C will be nearly 800,000, but as evident from the article third to half of them are unaware of being affected by this disease, which can result in cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. For the baby boomer generation hepatitis C is a major public health problem. As these were the people mostly involved in drug addiction, tattooing, piercing, etc.

Cause and Sensitivity:

Hepatitis C is one of the hepatitis C virus infection caused disease in humans. It is characterized by a high rate of chronicity (up 80%); in the course of severe liver damage such as liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma may result. Transmission occurs hereditarily via blood, therapy, depending on the genotype of the hepatitis C virus possible in limited form. Vaccination is currently not available. Approximately 30% of diseases can subsequently the infection is no longer understood. As highlighted in the article, increased risk of infection exists today for drug abusers such as heroin, intravenous, and also through using the same injecting equipment with other consumers. Common routes of infection are the injury with sharp or pointed instruments Needle Stick Injury (NSI) contaminated with simultaneous transmission of blood. Sexual transmission of hepatitis C is rare. Because the virus is transmitted through blood, sexual practices involving a higher risk of mucosal injury, such as unprotected anal intercourse, fraught with a higher risk. Worldwide, about 170 million people infected with the HC-virus. The main risk groups for HCV infection are injecting drug users, of which 60 to 90 percent of carriers of HCV (WHO, 2007). Conversely, reported in a U.S. study 48.4% of all anti-HCV-positive individuals aged between 20 and 59 an intravenous drug use on.

According to statistics, more difficult to treat hepatitis C in men, people older than 40 years, patients with normal transaminase activity, with a high viral load, with a genotype 1 ...