On the occasion of the day of taking the hepatitis C test, two specialists abound on the importance of detecting it in time.
Dr. Federico Rodríguez, president of the Puerto Rican Association of Gastroenterology and Dr. Jorge Santana Bagur, medical director of the AIDS Clinical Research Unit (ACTU) of the Medical Sciences Campus and specialist in infectious diseases. Photo: Image of Dr. Rodríguez, Cooperative of Gastroenterologists of Puerto Rico. Image by Dr. Bagur, archive of the Journal of Medicine and Public Health. Fabiola Plaza.
The president of the Puerto Rican Association of Gastroenterology, Doctor Federico Rodriguezhighlights that the gastroenterologists are specialists in infections of the liver, which is why they treat many patients with the condition of hepatitis C, which affects some three hundred million people worldwide, taking into account Puerto Rico a prevalence of 2.3% of the population, which shows that there is a significant number of patients in Puerto Rico infected with hepatitis C, unlike USAwhere the prevalence is a little lower, as he clarifies.
La hepatitis C is the illness which is still the main cause of liver transplantation, for which it is very important that this disease be eradicated, as indicated by the doctor Rodríguez.
The specialist in infectology and director of the Clinical Research Unit of the SIDA (ACTU), from the medical sciences campus of the University of Puerto Ricothe doctor Jorge Santana Bagurnotes that la hepatitis C, indeed, represents the highest incidence of liver transplantation worldwide.
In addition, it states that: “Today it is known that the transmission of this disease occurs through blood and its products. Initially, there was talk of the patient who used intravenous drugs as the main source of transmission, but in recent years an increase in the incidence of this condition has been noted, especially in men who have unprotected sex”.
It is remarkable that the baby boomer generation (people who are now 45-65 years old) is considered a high-risk group, since at that time there was no diagnosis available for la hepatitis C, which became available in 1992, when the serological test to diagnose it emerged.
Before 1992, one of the risks for this population was blood transfusion, since there was no way to detect if a persona had that virus or not. It is not until the problem of the AIDS and other viral diseases that there was awareness of the need to have tools that were sterile to avoid said contagion, so there was no awareness in people who got tattoos or piercings, who were also victims of this virus, says Dr. Rodríguez.
In Latin America much is mentioned practice of surgical proceduresgiven that before there was no accurate awareness of the use of methods or instruments to guarantee the immunity of the people. The same doctors and nurses now they take more care (of punctures, for example), limits the expert Rodríguez. Today it is recommended that a person who is 18 years of age or older, get a serological test.
However, the doctor Santa clarifies that today the baby boomers are not transmitting hepatitis and that following the age of 18, it is recommended to have a test every year, or every six months, especially if they have high-risk behaviors, since, although it is an illness slow, you want to diagnose quickly so that the cure is also much faster and without complications.
Currently, direct-acting drugs have been developed, points out Dr. Rodríguez. The evolution of therapy la hepatitis C is very long, initially it was treated with drugs that were injectable and caused many side effects with little chance of cure, but with the arrival of direct-acting drugs the whole picture changed, since these drugs act directly by inhibiting the replication of the virus and the effectiveness is high, previously it was 30 or 40%, but today it can be more than 90% effective, which translates into a cure for the patient, that is to say that la hepatitis C can be cured; this medicine is with pills, they have minimal side effects and do not interact with the characteristics of the patient, Rodríguez points out.
Dr. Santana adds that direct-acting medications constitute one of the most significant advances of modernity, since the cure they provide does not fall below 95%.
Regarding the way in which it manifests itself the illnessone of the biggest problems with this condition is that it is asymptomatic, “80% of patients do not develop symptoms, so it is important to know the risk factors associated with the illness and get tested,” emphasizes Dr. Rodríguez.
This disease does not progress quickly, but little by little, with inflammation, the liver generates scars that, in an advanced stage, lead to cirrhosis, at which time patients begin to develop the illness, your skin turns yellow or you vomit blood. There are people who are surprised to have been infected with the virus of la hepatitis C, so it cannot be thought that it can only affect users who have used drugs or who have received a blood transfusion, but that it can affect other people. Therefore, it is not necessary to think of the presence of a single symptom as an indicator of the illnessRodriguez clarifies.
For Dr. Santana it is important to be clear that there are three types of hepatitis, A, B and C. la hepatitis A abdominal pain and diarrhea may predominate. In la hepatitis B may present the feeling of a distended belly, tiredness, yellow color, white stools and dark urine, but in la hepatitis C, 70% of patients do not present any symptoms “and when the symptoms appear it is already too late”, as Santana points out, so it is important to diagnose as early as possible.
Regarding sexual transmission, between men and women it is not very efficient or probable, but between men/men, with unprotected sex, the condition can occur, clarifies Santana.
Previously, the treatments were expensive, but today they are accessible and paid for by private health plans, in order to prevent the person from developing cirrhosis. It is working so that la hepatitis C sea an illness very rare, or eradicate it. The two experts consulted are hopeful that this objective will be met, conveying the message that la hepatitis C can be cured, so the population must be tested.
