Researchers Reveal the Real Cause of Hepatitis C, Baby Boomers Strongly Urged to Get Tested

published on April 4, 2016 by Val Powell, in INQUISITR

Hepatitis C has infected over 300,000 Canadians, and 75 percent of them consist of people belonging to the generation born between 1946 and 1964, also known as “baby boomers.”

For the longest time, it has been widely believed that the deadly disease was acquired by baby boomers in their late teens or early twenties, and was transmitted to them through deviant sexual behavior and drug abuse.

It was believed that during their time, these baby boomers experimented with a lot of things, which resulted in them acquiring the disease. Hepatitis C did not develop rapidly and required up to 50 years before exhibiting its symptoms.

“The problem is that Hepatitis C takes somewhere around five decades to evolve into a significant disease,” mentioned in the report. What’s more alarming is that anyone who is infected is capable of infecting others through their blood.

However, British Columbia researchers have recently found out that the boom of the Hepatitis C epidemic took place in 1950, and not 15 years later, where drug injection, sexual experimentation, and other risky behaviors became rampant.

Researchers from B.C. Centre of Excellence in HIV/AIDS, as well as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found out that there were 40,000 cases of Hepatitis C at that time, and that the epidemic actually reached its peak that year.

“The spread of Hepatitis C in North America occurred at least 15 years earlier than it was suspected before, and if that is the case, the baby boomer epidemic… cannot be explained by behavioral indiscretions on the part of the baby boomers,” said Dr. Julio Montaner, the director of the BC Centre of Excellence in HIV/AIDS and also a co-investigator of the research.

View the full article >>

Tags:

Hepatitis

Jeff Joy

Julio Montaner

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Search form

Researchers Reveal the Real Cause of Hepatitis C, Baby Boomers Strongly Urged to Get Tested

Search form