Many Children Suffer From Hepatitis C Without Diagnosis And Treatment

Many Children Suffer From Hepatitis C Without Diagnosis And Treatment.
Many children with hepatitis C go undiagnosed and untreated, which can conduct to stringent liver destruction later in life, a new study warns. Researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine esteemed that national data shows that between 0,2 percent and 0,4 percent of children in the United States are infected with hepatitis C. Based on that data, they regard they would recover about 12,155 cases of pediatric infection in Florida, yet only 1,755 cases were identified, a mere 14,4 percent of the expected legions of cases.

So "Our study showed a lack of adequate identification of hepatitis C virus infection in children that could be widespread throughout the nation," said precede researcher Dr Aymin Delgado-Borrego, a pediatric gastroenterologist and subsidiary professor of pediatrics. Hepatitis C is get a kick out of a "ticking bomb. It seems harmless until it explodes".

Most children and adults infected with hepatitis C do not have symptoms or only nonspecific symptoms, such as weary or abdominal pain, Delgado-Borrego said. She planned to now the findings Sunday at the Digestive Disease Week conference in New Orleans. Delgado-Borrego chose Florida for the swat because it is one of the few states that requires all cases of the infection to be reported to the adjoining health department.

"Not only was there a lack of proper identification, but among the children that have been identified the percentage of those receiving medical disquiet is extremely and unacceptably low". Based on these data, Delgado-Borrego's group found only about 1,2 percent of children with hepatitis C were receiving care by a pediatric hepatologist.

Most young children get the infection from their mothers while in the womb. That accounts for about 60 percent of the infections in innocent children, Delgado-Borrego said. Teenagers can get it through IV medicate use and other substance abuse. So why are so many kids missed? According to Delgado-Borrego, there's a widespread be of awareness of the condition and adequate screening is not often done.

Moreover, children are too often not referred to treatment. "Primary grief doctors should screen all children who are at risk for hepatitis C infection, such as those whose mothers are infected," Delgado-Borrego said. In addition, infected children should be referred to specialists.

And "Early denomination of pediatric hepatitis C infection would in all probability serve us cure the infection in over 50 percent of children that currently have it," Delgado-Borrego pointed out. "This would scrimp children from liver damage as well as possible liver failure, liver cancer and even primordial death". Dr Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at New York University "this is a unbelievably shocking study".

Siegel said early diagnosis of hepatitis C is very important, especially in children. "Because if kids have it they have a lifetime of hazard to it, so the chances of damage to the liver is very high" male size com. Hepatitis C is the influential cause of liver transplantation.