Health group says local hepatitis C rate 'alarming' in at-risk residents

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http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/01/08/010909_1A_Hepatit\

is_C.html

Health group says local hepatitis C rate 'alarming' in at-risk residents

By LE ROY STANDISH

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Sitting in a cozy office waiting for clients is not how Rabeeha Ghaffar sees her

job at the Western Colorado AIDS Project.

“I don’t wait for them to come to me, because that is not going to happen most

of the time,” said Ghaffar, the prevention resource director for WestCAP.

She seeks out clients at homeless shelters, at alcohol and drug recovery

programs and at Mesa County’s Summit View meth rehabilitation center. In the

last 2 1/2 years she has tested nearly 200 people in 22 counties across Western

Colorado, because, she said, “It wasn’t getting done.”

Ghaffar is not looking for new infections of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

She is seeking out a far more elusive virus: hepatitis C.

The results of Ghaffar’s aggressive testing, funded by the Colorado Department

of Public Health and Environment at $40 a test, has given her cause for concern.

This fiscal year she has tested 103 people, compared to 35 last fiscal year.

Despite the increase in testing she is maintaining an average 12 percent

positive rate for hepatitis C among the at-risk population she goes looking for

— injection drug users — and the HIV-positive clients who access WestCAP’s

services.

“Which is, according to the state health department, the highest in the state,”

she said. “Usually when you increase the tests the positivity rate goes down, so

that is telling me that it is a very alarming concern.”

While WestCAP’s focus is HIV and AIDS, its staff started to notice 10 percent of

its clients also had hepatitis C. So in 2005 it contacted the state health

department for assistance to become a designated testing center along with the

Mesa County Health Department.

A study of injection drug users in Denver found that 75 percent of those tested

for hepatitis C tested positive, according to the health department. Ghaffar

said in Mesa County, 95 percent of those who test positive are injection drug

users.

“There is obviously a link (between hepatitis C and injection drug use),”

Ghaffar said.

The virus is able to survive outside the body for four days. In a needle the

virus can survive for up to six months, she said. The test, drawing of blood

from a pin prick to one finger, takes two weeks to get results. If left

untreated, hepatitis C can cause death.

“There is no cure,” Ghaffar said. But with detection there are ways to manage

the disease and prevent its spread, she said.

The places Ghaffar can send people for treatment who test positive are limited:

The Marillac Clinic; St. ’s Hospital; or a private physician.

“Try finding an expert,” she says with some exasperation. “I mean that is

super-expensive.”

Ghaffar’s findings should not be misconstrued and applied to the entire county.

Because WestCAP tests only those at highest risk of infection, “the positivity

rate at the WestCAP testing site cannot be generalized to all of Mesa County,”

according to an e-mail to The Daily Sentinel from Amy Warner, viral hepatitis

program manager for the state health department. “The numbers are so small, that

we can’t say that changes in rates from year to year accurately reflects true

changes within the rates of hepatitis C infection in any county.”

Western Colorado AIDS Project hepatitis C screening results

• June 2007 to December 2008: 103 tested, 12 positive. Of the positives, 10 were

injection drug users, and one had an infected sexual partner.

• July 2006 to June 2007: 35 tested, four positive. Of the positives, four were

injection drug users.

• July 2005 to June 2006: 32 tested, five positive. Of the positives, four were

injection drug users, and one had an infected sexual partner.

Hepatitis C facts

• In 2007, when 661 high-risk individuals were tested statewide, the CDPHE found

110 people, or 17 percent, tested positive for the hepatitis C virus.

• Hepatitis C works its way silently through those infected, attacking the

liver, often not revealing symptoms for 15 to 20 years.

• An estimated 85,000 people in Colorado have hepatitis C, and 85 percent are

chronically infected, according to the Colorado Department of Health and

Environment.

Email LE ROY STANDISH

[Guest guest]

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/01/08/010909_1A_Hepatit\

is_C.html

Health group says local hepatitis C rate 'alarming' in at-risk residents

By LE ROY STANDISH

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Sitting in a cozy office waiting for clients is not how Rabeeha Ghaffar sees her

job at the Western Colorado AIDS Project.

“I don’t wait for them to come to me, because that is not going to happen most

of the time,” said Ghaffar, the prevention resource director for WestCAP.

She seeks out clients at homeless shelters, at alcohol and drug recovery

programs and at Mesa County’s Summit View meth rehabilitation center. In the

last 2 1/2 years she has tested nearly 200 people in 22 counties across Western

Colorado, because, she said, “It wasn’t getting done.”

Ghaffar is not looking for new infections of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

She is seeking out a far more elusive virus: hepatitis C.

The results of Ghaffar’s aggressive testing, funded by the Colorado Department

of Public Health and Environment at $40 a test, has given her cause for concern.

This fiscal year she has tested 103 people, compared to 35 last fiscal year.

Despite the increase in testing she is maintaining an average 12 percent

positive rate for hepatitis C among the at-risk population she goes looking for

— injection drug users — and the HIV-positive clients who access WestCAP’s

services.

“Which is, according to the state health department, the highest in the state,”

she said. “Usually when you increase the tests the positivity rate goes down, so

that is telling me that it is a very alarming concern.”

While WestCAP’s focus is HIV and AIDS, its staff started to notice 10 percent of

its clients also had hepatitis C. So in 2005 it contacted the state health

department for assistance to become a designated testing center along with the

Mesa County Health Department.

A study of injection drug users in Denver found that 75 percent of those tested

for hepatitis C tested positive, according to the health department. Ghaffar

said in Mesa County, 95 percent of those who test positive are injection drug

users.

“There is obviously a link (between hepatitis C and injection drug use),”

Ghaffar said.

The virus is able to survive outside the body for four days. In a needle the

virus can survive for up to six months, she said. The test, drawing of blood

from a pin prick to one finger, takes two weeks to get results. If left

untreated, hepatitis C can cause death.

“There is no cure,” Ghaffar said. But with detection there are ways to manage

the disease and prevent its spread, she said.

The places Ghaffar can send people for treatment who test positive are limited:

The Marillac Clinic; St. ’s Hospital; or a private physician.

“Try finding an expert,” she says with some exasperation. “I mean that is

super-expensive.”

Ghaffar’s findings should not be misconstrued and applied to the entire county.

Because WestCAP tests only those at highest risk of infection, “the positivity

rate at the WestCAP testing site cannot be generalized to all of Mesa County,”

according to an e-mail to The Daily Sentinel from Amy Warner, viral hepatitis

program manager for the state health department. “The numbers are so small, that

we can’t say that changes in rates from year to year accurately reflects true

changes within the rates of hepatitis C infection in any county.”

Western Colorado AIDS Project hepatitis C screening results

• June 2007 to December 2008: 103 tested, 12 positive. Of the positives, 10 were

injection drug users, and one had an infected sexual partner.

• July 2006 to June 2007: 35 tested, four positive. Of the positives, four were

injection drug users.

• July 2005 to June 2006: 32 tested, five positive. Of the positives, four were

injection drug users, and one had an infected sexual partner.

Hepatitis C facts

• In 2007, when 661 high-risk individuals were tested statewide, the CDPHE found

110 people, or 17 percent, tested positive for the hepatitis C virus.

• Hepatitis C works its way silently through those infected, attacking the

liver, often not revealing symptoms for 15 to 20 years.

• An estimated 85,000 people in Colorado have hepatitis C, and 85 percent are

chronically infected, according to the Colorado Department of Health and

Environment.

Email LE ROY STANDISH