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Hepatitis C cases in New York expected to soar in a decade; 1 in 24 New Yorkers have hepatitis C: 340,000 in NYS
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BY DELTHIA RICKS |delthia.ricks@newsday.com
March 26, 2008
Cases of hepatitis C, already at epidemic proportions in New York, are expected to jump explosively in the coming decade, increasing the need for liver transplants and fueling a rise in the liver-related death rate, experts said yesterday.
Speaking at a daylong conference on hepatitis C convened by the New York State Health Department, doctors painted a dreary picture of a silent epidemic in which many of those affected are unaware of their condition - until it is too late. The problem is exacerbated by too few doctors and other health care providers capable of rendering expert care to infected patients, said Dr. David Bernstein, chief of the Digestive Disease Institute at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, who addressed an array of concerns.
"This is the most common blood-borne infection in the United States," he said yesterday during the meeting at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in Manhattan.
State health officials estimate that 1 in 24 New Yorkers are infected with hepatitis C, accounting for an estimated 340,000 infections statewide. Nearly 15,000 cases are estimated in Nassau and Suffolk.
New York is in the vanguard of a rising epidemic expected to peak in 2015 when cases of the infection will increase fourfold nationwide, driving a 528 percent jump in the need for liver transplants and a 223 percent leap in the liver-related death rate, experts underscored yesterday.
State health officials hope the focus on hepatitis C will spur more people to be tested. Symptoms are often vague and can be flu-like, typified by extreme fatigue.
Bernstein noted the good news about hepatitis C is that it is curable, and that an estimated one-third of patients clear the infection on their own.
Doctors largely blamed the explosive number of cases on intravenous drug use, but noted the infection, which is transmitted through blood-to-blood contact, can be spread in a variety of ways, ranging from unhygienic tattooing to needle-stick injuries that affect health care providers. Contaminated medical equipment has been a focus on Long Island in the wake of a scare caused by Dr. Harvey Finkelstein last fall.
State lawmakers are considering a measure that would prevent doctors such as Finkelstein from relying on multiuse medication vials in which syringes can be dipped numerous times, potentially spreading viruses from patient to patient.
Dr. Melissa Palmer, a Plainview liver specialist, said Long Islanders are still reeling from the Finkelstein debacle because the Plainview pain specialist double-dipped syringes in multiuse medication vials, forcing more than 600 to be tested for hepatitis C and other blood-borne viruses.
"I know that situations like that can scare people, but getting infected that way is rare," Palmer said. "Most of the cases we are finding are people who have had it for 10, 20, even 30 years and have not known it."
Facts on hepatitis C
The infection is diagnosed more frequently in men, possibly because there are more male intravenous drug users.
Women are 45 percent more likely to eradicate the infection on their own; men have only a 15 percent chance. Doctors are uncertain why the disparity exists.
Interferon, an immune booster, and Ribavirin, an antiviral drug, can cure the infection in some patients.
About 80 percent of patients with hepatitis C have no symptoms.
Source: New York State Health Department and Plainview physician Melissa Palmer
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