Two of the world’s most predominant virologists are urging baby boomers to get tested for hepatitis C to better protect all Canadians.
The viral infection can destroy the liver and can be fatal. It’s usually acquired through contact with blood, including through blood transfusions, IV drug use or contaminated needles.
“This is very common,” Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology at the University of Alberta, said.
Up to 35,000 people in Alberta have hepatitis C, Tyrrell said.
People with the infection may not even know they have it since it can take years – even decades – before the symptoms of liver disease are noticed.
Dr. Michael Houghton has spent much of his career trying to find the cause of hepatitis C. After seven years, he discovered a virus and developed a test that would determine if patients were infected.
“In the last few years, we’ve developed very good drugs that can cure virtually every patient,” said Houghton, who is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology at the University of Alberta.