Hepatitis C crisis spikes on LI

An estimated 44,000 people on Long Island are infected with hepatitis C and seven out of 10 don't even know it.

Experts gathered Thursday to address the public health crisis blamed a rise in intravenous drug use, tattooing and body piercing for a dramatic spike in infection rates among young adults.

For aging baby boomers, infections that have smoldered for decades are now resulting in cirrhosis or full-blown liver failure, the experts said.

New York State epidemiologists predicted the trend three years ago, but the medical and social service impacts on Long Island are only now being felt - with health officials saying they are overwhelmed and underfunded.

Nassau and Suffolk counties rank behind New York City, where 129,000 people are believed to be carrying the virus.

Dr. David Bernstein, who heads the division of liver diseases at North Shore/LIJ Health System in Manhasset, said the surge in hepatitis C cases has forced him to screen a wider group of people.

"I screen everyone with a tattoo and everyone with body piercings," said Bernstein, whose research shows that one-third of the U.S. population younger than 30 has a tattoo.

The situation was presented during the inaugural meeting in Lindenhurst of the Long Island Regional hepatitis C Task Force - a consortium of health care and advocacy organizations.

"Hepatitis C dwarfs the number of people with other bloodborne viral diseases," Bernstein said, referring to HIV and hepatitis B.

He emphasized that hepatitis C is the only curable bloodborne viral disease, but many people don't know they're infected.

The estimate that 33,000 Long Islanders have no idea they are infected is based on epidemiologic projections that take into account the rate at which infections have been confirmed in recent years.

Shari Foster, director of Status C Unknown, a Medford-based nonprofit that advocates for people with hepatitis C, said she is concerned about Suffolk's treatment resources for some.

For those who are underinsured or uninsured, she said, few centers outside of Stony Brook University Medical Center offer treatment services, adding that Suffolk's lack of resources has become critical.

Foster noted that in New York State, "Suffolk County has the highest rate of hepatitis C outside of New York City."

But the state health department, which has funds for hepatitis C screening and treatment, says because it's a disease that by state mandate requires each case be reported, the department - with a statewide budget of just $1.19 million - can't keep up with the workload.

"We don't have the manpower or the resources to follow up on every single laboratory report we receive," said Colleen Flanigan, a registered nurse and viral hepatitis coordinator at the health department in Albany.

At the task force meeting, Flanigan outlined New York's Viral Hepatitis Strategic Plan, which calls for increased screening and education programs.

Projections three years ago indicated hepatitis C cases would rise through 2015, driving a 528 percent jump in the need for liver transplants and a 223 percent increase in liver-related deaths in New York.

Across the state, an estimated one in 24 people carries the virus, accounting for more than 325,000 infections. Nationally, 3.5 million people are infected.
 

About hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is an infection that attacks the liver and initially may produce only vague flu-like symptoms.

Only a minority of people during the early phase of infection have symptoms, which may last weeks to months. Symptoms include:

• Fatigue

• Nausea

   

   

• Vomiting

   

   

• Diarrhea

   

  In the chronic phase of the disease, infection that persists for years, symptoms are more pronounced:

   

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