The state Health Department on Friday joined CDC in encouraging baby boomers, people born between 1945 and 1965, to get tested for hepatitis C virus. An estimated 12,000 people in Vermont have HCV, and many are unaware they are infected, though a simple blood test can detect the virus, state officials said. About 3 percent of baby boomers are HCV-infected, comprising about three-quarters of Americans with HCV. The blood-borne virus is the number one cause of liver cancer and liver transplants.
[PNU editor’s note: For more information, visit healthvermont.gov or CDC’s K(no)w More Hepatitis website: http://www.cdc.gov/KnowMoreHepatitis/.]
Source
http://www.ap.org/
Date of Publication
08/27/2012
Article Type
General media
Article Category
News Briefs
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