When Karen Robson was about to turn 40 earlier this year, her doctor ordered a battery of tests – including a blood test for hepatitis C. Robson, a Toronto-based sociologist, said she was shocked when the results confirmed that she had antibodies for hepatitis C. “I went into panic mode,” she said.
Robson has no idea how she contracted the virus: She has never received a blood transfusion or medical attention in a foreign country, and never experimented with injection drugs, she said. Doctors suggested there was a slim chance she was infected via dental work or sharing a toothbrush. “If I can get this, anyone can,” she said.
Hepatitis C is sometimes seen as a drug addict’s disease, but recent data suggest the largest group of Canadians carrying the virus consists of average adults born between 1945 and 1975. Last year, evidence of high infection rates among boomers prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend that all adults born between 1945 and 1965 be tested and treated for hepatitis C before this latent disease becomes a health crisis.
Adriana Barton
The Globe and Mail
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