NJ Spotlight published the following article on March 13, 2014. To read the full article, click here.
PROPOSED TESTING FOR HEPATITIS C PROMPTS DEBATE IN MEDICAL COMMUNITY
ANDREW KITCHENMAN | MARCH 13, 2014
Hepatitis C, a viral infection that can destroy people’s livers over decades and ultimately kill them, can be treated successfully in about 70 percent of cases. But many residents are unaware that they have the disease.
That’s why state legislators have introduced a bill, S-876/A-2555, that would require all hospitals and healthcare professionals to offer hepatitis C tests to all patients born between 1945 and 1965, the age group that’s most likely to be infected.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joseph F. Vitale (D-Middlesex), is based on a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation.
Hepatitis C led to 16,627 deaths nationally in 2010 and has surpassed HIV/AIDS as a cause of death. Three-quarters of 2.7 million to 3.9 million people with the disease are baby boomers. In most cases, the blood-borne infection was contracted through needle sharing or from blood transfusions or organ donation before screening began after hepatitis C was identified in the late 1980s.