With considerable case numbers, Hepatitis C named growing threat to Kentuckians

WHITLEY COUNTY, Ky. — A state health assessment released earlier this year by the Kentucky Department for Public Health shows that Kentucky has had the highest rate of new hepatitis C infections in the country over the past several years.

The assessment, which reviewed data from 2008 through 2015, shows 1,089 new cases of hepatitis C were reported during that time. That number represents only new cases of acute hepatitis C, not the overall number of cases.

Between 2011 and 2015, states like Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Tennessee also reported notable acute hepatitis C case numbers.

Tamara Phelps, public health supervisor at the Whitley County Health Department, said the virus is a problem in the area especially due to several contributing factors.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, acute hepatitis C is “a short-term illness that occurs within the first six months after someone is exposed to the hepatitis C virus.” While the virus is treatable, the CDC maintains that most cases of acute infection lead to chronic infection, which is long-term and can last a lifetime.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease primarily spread through contact with blood of an infected person, according to the CDC, that can range in severity according to whether the infection is acute or chronic.

Hepatitis C is associated with more deaths in the United States than 60 other infectious diseases combined, according to a CDC report on the virus.

That same report, released in 2015, stated that the highest rates of new hepatitis C infections were among young people “who inject drugs.” With the growing drug epidemic in southeastern Kentucky and the rest of the United States, the rise in hepatitis C infections shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

“We do have a high rate of hepatitis C cases in this community,” said Phelps. “Unfortunately, the treatments are out there [for people with hepatitis C], but for people with Medicaid to be treated, they have to give up their addiction, which is hard, and they have to be at a certain stage in liver failure before Medicaid will treat it.”

[National context] On a national scale, an estimated 3.2 million people in the United States are living with chronic hepatitis C infection, according to information compiled by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In recent years, Americans of the “Baby Boomer” generation have been urged to get tested for Hepatitis C, as they could’ve come in contact with the virus prior to its identification in 1989.

In Whitley County, more than 19,500 individuals are enrolled in Medicaid, according to a July monthly membership count of Medicaid recipients throughout the state conducted by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. In Knox County that number is just a little over 17,700, and in Laurel County nearly 23,000.

Since a large percentage of the clients with hepatitis C infections cared for by local health departments are Medicaid recipients, treatment options are scarce. Newer alternatives such as the needle exchange programs offered at Whitley County Health Department and Knox County Health Department are hoping to curb the rise in newer cases.

“We educate about hepatitis C — testing, treatment, prevention. Hopefully, somebody is listening,” said Phelps. “It is a threat to our community, and it is very costly.”

Whitley County Health Department averages around 30 clients per week in its needle exchange program, according to Phelps, where, in addition to the educational tools needed to help combat hepatitis C, clean needles are also offered in an effort to prevent further spread of the virus.

Program participants are given an initial number of clean needles — typically two — which are then traded in to the health department for clean ones. The health department is then responsible for disposal of the used needles.

Phelps also noted that the department’s program has been going very well and they have yet to encounter any problems.

Wyatt writes for the Corbin, Kentucky Times-Tribune.