Indeed Hepatitis C and other subtypes of Hepatitis such as Hepatitis B spares no one; even the celebrities and stars. Pamela Anderson, a Bay Watch star, was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and disclosed in March 2002 that she had the disease and claimed that she contracted the disease from her previous husband Tommy Lee but reported that her body is responding to the hepatitis c treatment she is currently on.
Hepatitis C is a serious liver disease that affects millions of people. To date more than 180 million people are infected with Hepatitis C Virus according to the World Health Organization (WHO) with numbers increasing every year (around 3 to 4 million infected per year) and more than 3 quarters of those currently infected will develop chronic liver disease (chronic hepatitis). Moreover, WHO stated that the disease is " responsible for 50–76% of all liver cancer cases, and two thirds of all liver transplants in the developed world"
Too bad there is no existing vaccine to prevent Hepatitis C infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are different ways by which a person can be infected with hepatitis c virus:
- You ever injected street drugs, as the needles and/or other drug "works" used to prepare or inject the drug(s) may have had someone else's blood that contained HCV on them.
- You received blood, blood products, or solid organs from a donor whose blood contained HCV.
- You were ever on long-term kidney dialysis as you may have unknowingly shared supplies/equipment that had someone else's blood on them.
- You were ever a healthcare worker and had frequent contact with blood on the job, especially accidental needlesticks.
- Your mother had hepatitis C at the time she gave birth to you. During the birth her blood may have gotten into your body.
- You ever had sex with a person infected with HCV.
- You lived with someone who was infected with HCV and shared items such as razors or toothbrushes that might have had his/her blood on them.
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