An insidious killer has attacked an estimated 170 million people globally and continues to lurk in the shadows. As a nurse, nursing student, other type of healthcare worker, or member of the public, you have undoubtedly encountered people who have this disease and you probably did not even realize it.
Hepatitis C is an infectious hepatic disease of viral origin that typically results in chronic liver damage, and in numerous instances around the world, death. Politicians, public health officials, epidemiologists, pharmaceutical firms, and researchers focus the vast majority of their funds, research, and energies on other diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS because they do not yet deem hepatitis C as a viable threat to the public.
More awareness, funding, and research on hepatitis C is necessary for the prevention of the disease and the creation of effective treatments for the millions of individuals who are now affected. Hepatitis C warrants further scrutiny because it is epidemically widespread, a deadly killer, widely misunderstood, and easy to transmit.
Hepatitis C is quite widespread; in fact, an epidemic proportion of the population is afflicted with this liver disease. It is currently the most common blood-borne infection in the United States and affects an estimated four million people in its most chronic form. Hepatitis C infects nearly four times as many people in the U.S. as HIV and is projected to cause the deaths of more American persons than HIV by the year 2020.
Internationally, the number of people who are presently afflicted with hepatitis C is even more astounding. According to estimates, 170 million people have hepatitis C worldwide. The numbers of individuals afflicted will, in all likelihood, continue to epidemically burgeon unless more public awareness is cast on this infectious disease.
A deadly and silent killer, hepatitis C triggers a painstakingly slow course of events that inflict a bodily toll on its sufferers. In fact, the effects of chronic liver disease triggered by the hepatitis C virus are normally not overt until ten to twenty years after the initial infection. Most people who are infected are not aware that they have any disease since hepatitis C takes its course over a period of numerous years before the noticeable symptoms begin to arise. According to the Centers for Disease Control, hepatitis C-induced chronic liver disease is the most common reason for liver transplants in adults.
Some sufferers display signs and symptoms, although they are subtle and happen to be mistaken for milder ailments. The earliest symptoms include a weak appetite, nausea, muscular aching, sore joints, and mild fever. These symptoms are quite common in the general population; therefore, doctors often attribute them to other causes that are not lethal. According to CDC estimates, hepatitis C results in 8,000 to 10,000 deaths every year in the U.S. Hepatitis C is a deadly and silent illness that deserves more attention due to its insidious onset.
Hepatitis C demands more attention because of its relatively simple mode of transmission. The hepatitis C virus is transmitted from person to person by contact with the blood of an individual who has the virus. About half of all transmissions occur through intravenous drug use and nearly one-fourth of cases occur due to unprotected sexual activity.
Uncommon ways of spreading this virus include contaminated tattoo needles, used toothbrushes, and nail files that contain traces of infectious blood. To make matters worse, hepatitis C tends to resist a wide range of infection control measures such as heat, UV light, drying, freezing, bleach, and other disinfectants.
Further research, money, and public knowledge regarding hepatitis C is absolutely imperative to stop the rampant spread of the disease and to yield more treatment options for the millions of persons afflicted worldwide. Hepatitis C needs attention since it is so prevalent, misunderstood, lethal, and easy to transmit. Countless people will needlessly die if our politicians, epidemiologists, and major researchers continue to complacently vegetate on this topic. It is time to make the public aware of this frightful plague on a massive scale so that a myriad of human lives can be saved.
:cry:
blueheaven
832 Posts
Being a critical care nurse was a blessing and a curse through all of this. I think everyone here could understand that. Knowing what needed to be done and when was the blessing part. Knowing all about things that occur with ESLD was the curse part. Fortunately Gazz didn't have many of the problems that are associated with ESLD. Didn't have to have regular paracentesis (except for a diagnostic one) no bleeding varices, TIPs etc. He had primarily weakness that progressed, headaches, abd. pain. That was bad enough.