Hepatitis C Is Silent Like the Fog

It’s a shame when you are slowly dying from a disease you don’t know you have. To boot, what a tragedy if there is a cure. Yet this ignorance is a reality for many aging boomers who don’t know that they are infected with the hepatitis C virus. Anyone can contract hepatitis C. Infection occurs through transmission of tainted blood. It’s rare to be infected today through the healthcare system, as we’ve gotten much better at screening blood products and of course sterilizing medical equipment. Today, it is likely the reuse of injection needles by users of street drugs that leads to infection. Some people become infected from getting tattoos or piercings with poorly sterilized equipment. But for baby-boomers, born between 1945 and 1965, it’s believed that hepatitis C was transmitted long ago through contact with contaminated blood, before robust infection controls were in place. About 75 percent of North Americans carrying the virus are baby boomers. Estimates suggest that 250,000 Canadians are infected and about 3 million Americans.