Destigmatizing Hepatitis C

This post was written by Himani Jadeja, a Disease Surveillance Specialist at the Allegheny County Health Department Bureau of Assessment, Statistics, and Epidemiology.

Hepatitis C, sometimes called “the silent killer,” lives up to its nickname. According to the CDC, approximately 3.9 million people in the United States were diagnosed with chronic Hepatitis C.  The majority of people diagnosed are asymptomatic and unaware of their status. Even though some people are able to clear the infection, many develop a chronic form of the disease which can be debilitating or life-threatening. Hep C is a stigmatized disease due to a lack of awareness amongst the general public. Few people are aware that this disease is mainly transmitted through blood, but many still fear they can contract the disease just by being around someone who is ‘sick’. This culture of alienating people and not providing social support to those with Hep C can result in many not disclosing their status due to fear of not being accepted by their community, as well as an increase in growing epidemic.

Hepatitis C is an acute condition that often becomes a chronic disease, and the stigmatization of the disease is a barrier for many patients and providers when it comes to treating the disease. The transmission of the disease and lack of education about risk factor are major issues for the public health community to face. One of the biggest risk factors of people diagnosed with hepatitis C is injection drug use. Hepatitis C is not necessarily a result of a poor lifestyle choice or bad decisions but it can also be contracted via poor health care practices such as reuse of medical equipment without proper sterilization or contaminated blood products. Those who were born in the baby boomers generation contracted hepatitis C mainly through blood transfusions due to lack of blood screening in that time period.

An important and critical part of my role at the host site involves me interviewing patients to obtain in-depth risk factor information on how the disease was contracted and connect them to resources. Due to stigmatization, many do not seek treatment or health care for this only recently curable disease. Stigmatization is not the only reason behind not seeking treatment, the differing standards depending on insurance decides who is eligible for treatment and high costs of treatment also plays a role. This is the reason I try all that is in my power to contact these patients and educate them on available support groups or health centers for further testing if needed, or even resources that can possibly assist them in obtaining treatment with affordable cost. Some start out the interview with such a defeated sound as soon as they learn this is about their hepatitis C diagnosis, but by the end, when they learn that there is someone trying to help them, someone who cares, and is working hard to make sure they have the information they need to get any kind of help that is wanted. The ‘thank you so much’ at the end of the interviews from the patient gives me such satisfaction and a feeling that I cannot put into words. Each and every interview makes me realize more and more that I made the right choice by deciding to commit myself to a year of service at the Allegheny County Health Department.

Source: Centers for Disease Control (CDC)