HEPATITIS C POSES THREAT OF BIG CRISIS

The prevalence of hepatitis C is growing citywide and could spawn an
epidemic of staggering proportions unless steps are taken now, health
experts said Friday.

Doctors, researchers, community activists and people with the infection
testified in Manhattan before members of two state Assembly committees
asking legislators to take action to prevent an unprecedented increase in
the blood-borne disease within a decade. The infection can cause
irrevocable liver damage. Experts say an epidemic could overwhelm public
and private health systems and overload waiting lists for transplantable
livers.

"This is just the start of a tidal wave that is going to hit in 2015 to
2020," said Dr. Alain Litwin, an infectious-disease expert from Albert
Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx. Litwin and other doctors said
they know an epidemic is in the making because hepatitis C is being
diagnosed with increasing frequency, and is the No. 1 opportunistic
infection causing death in people with AIDS throughout the city.

An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people in the city may be infected, experts
said, and many may be unaware because of the disorder's long latency.
Symptoms can take up to 20 years to manifest.

"There is potential for a crisis in the city and the state," said Dr. Isaac
Weisfuse, deputy commissioner of infectious disease control of the New York
City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Weisfuse attributed the
growing problem to an increasing use of the street-drug crystal
methamphetamine. Sharing needles and other drug paraphernalia is spreading
the virus at an alarming rate, he said.

Experts Friday argued that, statewide, hundreds of thousands of other cases
of hepatitis C are probably going undiagnosed, and that legislators should
put strong outreach plans in place to provide drug counseling and
treatment. The infection can be effectively controlled with medications
when caught early.

Weisfuse said the rising number of cases in New York mirrors a national
trend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates within a
decade there will be a 279 percent increase in the incidence of liver
damage nationwide due to hepatitis C, a 528 percent increase in the need
for transplantation, and a 223 percent increase in the liver-related death
rate.

Hepatitis C is one in a family of infectious viruses that attack the liver.
Hepatitis A and B, whose prevalence also is rising in New York, are
preventable through vaccines. All three can be transmitted through blood,
by sharing needles, for example. Hepatitis C and B also can be transmitted
sexually. Hepatitis A is noteworthy as a contaminant of food and water.

Community activists Friday called on state legislators to increase funding
for vaccine programs to aid the uninsured. But while they sought greater
access to vaccinations, they sounded their strongest pleas for help with
hepatitis C.