Medical research and acceptance of the illness will develop only if our national support organizations which promote them are strong. Be sure to support your national groups, and when your national group calls for letters and phone calls to be sent to public officials and media, please get your family and friends to assist you in responding to those requests. We may be able to make greater achievements if we act in unison. In the USA, the largest source of research money comes from government allocations. Therefore, contacting your Congressman about the importance of Hepatitis research is very important. Did you know ?...... The World Health Organization estimates that three in every hundred humans have the hepatitis C virus, and that this number is increasing! “WHO estimates that about 170 million people, 3% of the world’s population, are chronically infected with HCV,” and 3 to 4 million persons are newly infected each year."
In the USA:
28.5 times MORE people are infected with Hepatitis viruses than with HIV.
150,000 - 180,000 new cases of Hepatitis C are expected this year.
200,000 - 250,000 new cases of Hepatitis B are expected this year.
40,000 new cases of HIV are expected this year.
8,000 - 12,000 Hep C patients are expected to die in 1997
Since close to 4 million people in the U.S. have HCV, it is the most prevalent chronic viral infection in the United States, and possibly the world. Interferon alone or in combination successfully treats between only a few HCV patients, despite what the drug companies would have you believe. Furthermore when you read the actual research articles you will find that many of the leading researchers are not happy with interferon, which they see as too expensive, and as carrying too many side effects. Remember, to the drug companies profits are the first objective, so question all statistics carefully. Speaking about cure rates from interferon monotherapy (1996), Dr. Lerner says this: “Assuming a "cure" rate of 8 - 15% in the 5 - 15% who would potentially benefit from treatment, one comes to an estimated improvement in outcome in only 0.4 - 2.25% of patients. Even this higher number is doubtful since the group with the most aggressive disease tends to have the lowest response to interferon..” From “Hepatitis C – A Silent Epidemic” by Dr. Steven E. Lerner
The HCV virus has a half-life of approximately six hours - in other words, if you start with two million, six hours later there are three million, etc. Hence the 3mu three times per week interferon dosage is not the most effective. HCV is the leading indication for liver transplants. According to the New York Blood Center, as many as 25% of people receiving blood transfusions in the early 1960s were being infected with contagious diseases and the majority were infected with hepatitis. About one-third of hepatitis B and C cases result from unknown sources. This means someone does not have to be among the high-risk groups to become infected with the virus.
