Hepatitus C is known as a silent epidemic because people can be infected for decades and have no clue!

2.3 million people are living with hep C. A disease caused by a virus that infects the liver. A hep C infection can lead to inflammation of the liver and cause the immune system to attack healthy liver cells. It can spread from person to person by coming in contact with another person’s blood.

Avoid tattoos or body piercings.

Chronic hep C can lead to scarring of the liver. Cirrhosis.

Can be treated with an antiviral medicine. In some people newer medicines can eradicate the virus.

Why baby boomers? In 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established HVC testing guidelines based on the presence of risk factors. These included receipt of blood transfusions prior to 1992, when blood donations began to be screened for HVC; however not many cases of hep C were diagnosed. This could likely be traced to a combination of doctors not being adequately engaged and patients in denial.

Screening all adults born between 1945 and 1965, THE baby boomers.

More than 3 out of every 100 baby boomers were infected with HVC.

Millions of American are walking around with hepatitis C and don’t know it. And that is WHY it is called the “silent epidemic”!

Please get tested. Please catch this virus as soon as possible. And please get treated.

Disclosure: I am not in the medical profession. I am the wife of a victim to this awful disease. On September 2, 2021, I took my husband to the emergency room where he tested positive for all three Lyme diseases. It was the young, intelligent, and persistent Sarah Merwin Thomen, APRN that knew there was something else going on with my husband. Sarah ran the tests and discovered he had Cirrhosis of the liver, splenomegaly, ascites and thrombocytopenia. Dave 6′ tall 236 pounds thought he was overweight, feeling fatigued and taking naps because of his age (67). The ascites caused his extended belly. He was full of fluids. Today, Dave weighs 212 pounds and he has a new gastroenterologist. I found an answered prayer in Dr. Lorna Mills Dove! Liver specialist at NY-Presbyterian Columbia Hospital!

I encourage you to please get tested. Wishing all of you a healthy retirement!

Thank you for reading my blog and for being my book friend forever. American Novelist Judy Prescott Marshall.

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