 | Joseph P. Galichia, MD is the founder and Medical Director of the Galichia Medical Group, PA. He is an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of interventional cardiology. In the 70's, Dr. Galichia studied in Zurich, Switzerland with the inventors of the balloon angioplasty technique for treating heart disease. As a result of his experience, he was able to bring this historic technique back to the United States where he was one of the first physicians to perform coronary angioplasty here. A noted medical spokesman, he appears on a weekly Newstalk segment on KWCH Channel 12 and has a weekly syndicated radio talk show on KNSS 1330 AM every Saturday live from 11:00 am to noon. Dr. Galichia may be contacted by sending an e-mail to service@galichia.com |
Health & Medicine
2004-08-01 11:28:00
Hepatitis C is on the increase
Question: Since Naomi Judd went public with having Hepatitis C, I have heard of many people being diagnosed with the virus or has it just become more recognized? What are the symptoms, treatments and signs as it progresses.
ANSWER: Hepatitis C is a viral infection which primarily affects the liver. In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the incidents of this problem. There are 3 types of Hepatitis. Hepatitis A is a more common, acute hepatitis often occurring in epidemics and is easily transmittable from person to person. This is usually however, a self-limiting illness and patients revert to normal without treatment over a several day period of time.Hepatitis B is a more complicated illness usually transmitted by blood transfusions, needles or body fluids. Hepatitis B rarely becomes chronic but often may result in severe liver damage. Hepatitis C however, often has no symptoms or very vague symptoms and more frequently becomes a chronic infection resulting in severe liver damage.Many patients with Hepatitis C complain of fatigue or very non-specific symptoms usually including a feeling of tiredness. They may have overt signs of hepatitis including jaundice and may have liver enzyme rises. Most patients with Hepatitis C are asymptomatic. Other patients may go through a long period of time being asymptomatic and then experience weight loss, fatigue, and joint complaints. This has become a relatively common illness and certainly now part of a ‘workup’ for any one who complains of generalized fatigue.This disease is transmitted by blood transfusions, needle sticks and sometimes by sexual contact. Hepatitis C in some individuals has no known origin and does often occur in people who seem to be at low risk for developing this illness.Recent treatments have become more sophisticated. Drug treatment is used in some patients, and new treatments are being looked at in many studies. Interferon is a drug which may help tremendously and in some cases seems to virtually cure this disease with a complete resolution of the liver function test abnormalities and clearing of the immunologic markers which indicate the presence of the disease. Overall, it is only about 50% effective.This is a major public health problem and major research is continuing to develop new therapies.
