Good News About Hepatitis C

I’m happy to report that APCA has received notice that it will be receiving a grant from Vertex Pharmaceuticals to conduct hepatitis C screening and education. According to the CDC, hepatitis C is “the most common chronic bloodborne infection in the United States; an estimated 3.2 million persons are chronically infected.”

Receipt of this new grant award is good news on two fronts. First, we can always use some additional financial support in these difficult economic times, and second and more importantly, identifying individuals chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus is now more important than ever – given the recent progress in treating this infection. With the advent of new hepatitis C therapies, up to 80% of infected individuals can have the virus cleared from their bloodstream indefinitely (known as “sustained virologic response”). This is essentially curing the disease.

However, like chronic hepatitis B infection, infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is very often asymptomatic, and most infected individuals are unaware that they carry the virus. Finding out one’s infection status through a simple blood test is therefore critically important and can provide an HCV-infected individual a very good chance of avoiding the severe liver disease (e.g., cirrhosis and liver cancer) often association with infection.

Consequently, we are pleased to be able to initiate a hepatitis C public education and screening program targeting local Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through this new grant program and thank Vertex Pharmaceuticals for its support.

- Doug Hirano, MPH, APCA Executive Director