Health News
- Hepatitis C Is On The Rise In Appalachian Kentucky, And Dirty Needles Are To Blame; Officials Predict Surge Of Hiv To Follow
Kentucky has the highest rate of acute hepatitis C in the nation and public officials predict it could get much worse, Claire Galofaro and Dylan Lovan report for the Kentucky bureau of The Associated Press. Dirty needles shared by drug users...
- Kentucky Led The Nation In Hepatitis C Cases In 2013; State's Rate Rose 357 Percent From 2007 To 2011
By Tim Mandell Kentucky Health News Kentucky had the nation's highest rate of hepatitis C in 2013, with 5.1 cases per every 100,000 people, says a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as 3.5 million people...
- Drug Use And Other Behaviors, And Poor Support Systems, Make Appalachia Ripe For Liver-damaging Hepatitis C Virus
The hepatitis C virus is a growing problem in Appalachia because of "high rates of injection use, little access to intervention services and tight-knit social circles," according to research conducted by the University of Kentucky since 2008 in Perry...
- Uk Researcher Calls For Change In State Law To Allow Syringe Exchange Program To Curb Hepatitis C Epidemic In Eastern Ky.
Despite the benefits associated with syringe- or needle-exchange programs in preventing the spread of hepatitis C, Kentucky law still prohibits them, and a researcher from the University of Kentucky is calling upon policymakers to help curb this public...
- Uk Study Will Try To Stem High-risk, Health-damaging Risks In Drug-using Rural Women In Appalachian Kentucky
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have embarked on a five-year study that aims to lower behavioral risks of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C among disadvantaged, rural women in Appalachian Kentucky. With the help of a $2.7 million grant from the National...
Health News
More Americans dying from hepatitis C than from AIDS
More people are dying in the U.S. from hepatitis C than from AIDS, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. More than 3.2 million Americans have the hepatitis virus, which can cause chronic infection of the liver and eventually lead to liver failure.
Hepatitis C death rates climbed to almost 5 per 100,000 in 2007, from fewer than 3 per 100,000 in 1999. In the same time period, the HIV-AIDS death rate dropped to slightly more than 4 per 100,000 from more than 6 per 100,000.
"The declines in HIV reflect the accomplishments in building a public health response to the epidemic that improved screening and provided means of access to effective treatment," said Dr. John W. Ward, director of the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the CDC and author of the study. A similar program for hepatitis C would be similarly helpful, he said.
The disease is most commonly spread by exposure to infected blood. Intravenous drug abuse is the most common method of transmission, reports MedicineNet.com.
Ward said there is now a treatment "that was about 70 effective at clearing the virus from the body, but, he said, most infected people are unaware of their condition and do not receive treatment," reports Nicholas Bakalar for The New York Times. (Read more)
- Hepatitis C Is On The Rise In Appalachian Kentucky, And Dirty Needles Are To Blame; Officials Predict Surge Of Hiv To Follow
Kentucky has the highest rate of acute hepatitis C in the nation and public officials predict it could get much worse, Claire Galofaro and Dylan Lovan report for the Kentucky bureau of The Associated Press. Dirty needles shared by drug users...
- Kentucky Led The Nation In Hepatitis C Cases In 2013; State's Rate Rose 357 Percent From 2007 To 2011
By Tim Mandell Kentucky Health News Kentucky had the nation's highest rate of hepatitis C in 2013, with 5.1 cases per every 100,000 people, says a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as 3.5 million people...
- Drug Use And Other Behaviors, And Poor Support Systems, Make Appalachia Ripe For Liver-damaging Hepatitis C Virus
The hepatitis C virus is a growing problem in Appalachia because of "high rates of injection use, little access to intervention services and tight-knit social circles," according to research conducted by the University of Kentucky since 2008 in Perry...
- Uk Researcher Calls For Change In State Law To Allow Syringe Exchange Program To Curb Hepatitis C Epidemic In Eastern Ky.
Despite the benefits associated with syringe- or needle-exchange programs in preventing the spread of hepatitis C, Kentucky law still prohibits them, and a researcher from the University of Kentucky is calling upon policymakers to help curb this public...
- Uk Study Will Try To Stem High-risk, Health-damaging Risks In Drug-using Rural Women In Appalachian Kentucky
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have embarked on a five-year study that aims to lower behavioral risks of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C among disadvantaged, rural women in Appalachian Kentucky. With the help of a $2.7 million grant from the National...