Starting next week, some Pennsylvanians will be asked a new question by their doctors. A new state law taking effect on September 18 , requires doctors and hospitals to offer baby boomers a blood test for Hepatitis C. That’s because people born between 1945 and 1965 , are much more likely to have been infected than people in other age groups.
Risk factors for Hep C include IV drug use, sex with an infected person, or a blood transfusion before 1992. That’s when it became possible to test blood for Hep C.
Blair Gastrolenterology Associates has been offering the screening test to baby boomers since the CDC recommended it 2 years ago.
Dr. Lance DeFrancisco says, “if left untreated, Hep C is a disease that evolves over 25 or 30 years, but at that 30 year mark, you may have cirrhosis, and if you have cirrhosis, you’re going to be at risk of liver cancer. Some infected patients who haven’t received treatment, eventually need a liver transplant.
Dr. DeFrancisco says diagnosis and treatment can also prevent transmission of Hep C. And, he adds that in a major advancement, new medications approved within the past few years have a 98-percent cure rate for the virus.
He says it’s estimated that about 2 percent of people who’d be offered testing under the new law, will be diagnosed with the virus.
