CDC Tells Boomers: Get A Hep C Test

The Centers For Disease Control has issued a call for all “baby boomers” to get a one-time test for Hepatitis C.

One in 30 baby boomers – the generation born from 1945 through 1965 – has been infected with hepatitis C, and most don’t know it. Hepatitis C causes serious liver diseases including liver cancer, which is the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related deaths, and the leading cause of liver transplants in the United States. CDC believes this approach will address the largely preventable consequences of this disease, especially in light of newly available therapies that can cure up to 75 percent of infections. “With increasingly effective treatments now available, we can prevent tens of thousands of deaths from hepatitis C,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

The CDC estimates that more than two million baby boomers are presently infected with Hep C, which is the leading cause of liver transplants.