By Paul Briand, Journalist and Baby Boomer Expert
Two-thirds of Hepatitis C patients are Baby Boomers. And they – and other sufferers of the liver-destroying virus – may get the benefit of a drug cocktail akin to the one that has made a huge difference for people with the AIDS virus.
Media reports say a current two-drug treatment for hepatitis C cures only about 40 percent of people with the virus; plus it has some grueling side effects. The addition of a new drug —either Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ telaprevir or Merck & Co.’s boceprevir — can reportedly boost those cure rates to as high as 75 percent.
Also, they allow some people to cut treatment time in half, to six months, thus lessening how long they must deal with the nasty side effects.
In the 1990s, the introduction of a combination of drugs vastly changed the landscape of AIDS, turning what had been a death sentence into a manageable illness through medication therapy.
The same hope is growing for those with hepatitis C, which turns out to be a high proportion of Baby Boomers.
The fact that most of the current hepatitis sufferers are Baby Boomers shows how the virus can wait for decades to present itself, most commonly as a diseased liver. It points to possible drug experimentation of Boomer youth or the fact that they had received tainted blood back before the days of testing the blood supply.
This has health policy makers thinking that Boomers need to be screened for hepatitis C in the same way they are regularly screened for some cancers and other age-related illnesses and diseases.
According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease spread primarily through contact with the blood of an infected person. Hepatitis C can be either “acute” or “chronic.”
In its chronic form, according to the CDC, the virus infection can last a lifetime and lead to serious liver problems, including cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) or liver cancer. Approximately 8,000 to 10,000 people die every year from Hepatitis C-related liver disease, said the CDC.
It said an estimated 4.4 million Americans are living with chronic hepatitis, and most do not know they are infected. About 80,000 new infections occur each year.
As for symptoms, the CDC said: “Most people with chronic Hepatitis C do not have any symptoms. However, if a person has been infected for many years, his or her liver may be damaged. In many cases, there are no symptoms of the disease until liver problems have developed. In persons without symptoms, Hepatitis C is often detected during routine blood tests to measure liver function and liver enzyme (protein produced by the liver) level.”
According to information in an Associated Press report, the new drugs block an enzyme named protease that’s key for the virus to reproduce. But they must be taken together as a cocktail with standard medications — ribavirin pills plus injections of interferon-alpha — that are thought to boost the immune system.
Between 67 percent and 75 percent of patients given treatment including either boceprevir or telaprevir, respectively, had what doctors call a cure. That’s defined as no sign of the hepatitis C virus six months after their last dose.
Dr. John Ward, hepatitis chief at the CDC, told the Associated Press: “We really want to begin that clarion call for action for this population who’s at risk.”
He advises Baby Boomers to start having a conversation with their doctors about hepatitis C risks and symptoms.
Pending approval of the new drugs, likely this summer, the CDC has begun a study at four hospitals — in New York, Detroit, Houston and Birmingham, Ala. — to see if a one-time hepatitis C test for Baby Boomers makes sense. Among Boomers, black men in their 50s are at particular risk. The CDC plans to present new guidelines next year.
About the Author
Paul Briand spent 33 years in newspaper journalism. Based in New Hampshire, he now writes about issues of interest to Baby Boomers.
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