STUDY TALLIES HEPATITIS NUMBERS

A public health study, which reveals thousands are living with
hepatitis C in San Mateo County, prompts officials to ask for more
funds to combat disease.

Up to 17,000 people in San Mateo County may be infected with hepatitis
C, but many of them don't know it.

County supervisors will learn more today when hepatitis C patients and
their advocates present a study about the disease's pervasiveness
among jail inmates, drug users and HIV patients.

The public health department interviewed and tested 1,025 people. At
needle exchange sites, 53 percent tested positive for hepatitis C, as
did more than 30 percent of inmates who volunteered to be tested in
the county jail. At HIV clinics in San Mateo County, 29 percent tested
positive.

Hepatitis C infection rates are 10 to 13 times greater than the rate
of HIV infection, officials report. The study was far from scientific,
researchers said. But the numbers combined with other population-based
studies show that 11,000 to 17,000 people are living with hepatitis C
in San Mateo County.

Health officials will ask supervisors today for $85,000 from the
general fund to further combat the disease. The money would be used
for testing and prevention efforts at HIV clinics and for increased
training of medical and correctional workers in the county jail.

Marginalized populations are not the only ones infected, said Joey
Tranchina, who directs needle exchanges and runs the Hepatitis C
Global Foundation, an international advocacy group.

More than 300 people who exchange syringes in San Mateo County
volunteered for an hour of detailed questioning about their sexual
lives, drug use and other behaviors for the countywide study.
Tranchina said the full scope of those infected may not have been tallied.

IV drug users were offered $10 to get tested and $12 to return for the
results. The money didn't attract wealthier drug users, like those who
arrange for needle exchanges via e-mail, Tranchina said.

"Twenty-two dollars was not enough to motivate our middle-class
exchangers," Tranchina said. "They didn't want to expose themselves;
they didn't want people probing around in their veins."

Hepatitis C is transmitted through blood, and scientists debate
whether it can be transmitted through sexual contact.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly
3.9 million people are infected with hepatitis C nationwide. Most
infections don't show symptoms, but those infected are at an increased
risk of liver failure and other chronic ailments. Treatment is
limited, and there is no known cure.

Hepatitis C tests are expensive: $20 for the first screening and $100
for a follow-up. Counties do not receive state or federal funding to
test residents, as they do with HIV, said Scott Morrow, county health
officer.

Morrow is advising county leaders to support a "harm reduction"
philosophy: Drug users have to be targeted for prevention, not just
those who have overcome their addictions. He also wants continued
funding of classes offered in Redwood City at the AIDS Community
Resource Consortium called "Living with Hep C."

Luther Brock, the course facilitator, speaks to participants from
experience. Brock said he has been infected with hepatitis C for 27
years but only started feeling the bulk of its effects five years ago.

The disease, if left unchecked, will continue draining the public
health system, he said. Brock's treatment costs about $8,000 a year
and doesn't work for everyone.

The county survey shows that thousands of hepatitis C sufferers rely
on the public health system, whether in jail or community-based clinics.