Education & Research on Hepatitis C - Part I
In the late l970s, Rolf Benirschke was living the American dream. A football player for the San Diego Chargers, he was earning a reputation as one of the most accurate kickers in National Football League history. By the early 1980s, however, his promising career was seriously threatened by ulcerative colitis, a painful and potentially life-threatening intestinal disease that required ostomy surgery. Blood transfusions he received at the time saved his life, but he learned 20 years later they had also put his life in jeopardy: a routine physical revealed Benirschke was infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV).
“When I first found out, I was devastated. I had no symptoms and was busy working to support a wife and four young children,” he says. The diagnosis forced me to learn as much as I could about the disease. I discovered that the virus is passed when there is blood-to-blood contact - often by people using IV drugs and sharing needles. But I also found out that anyone who had received a blood transfusion prior to1992 - before blood was screened for hepatitis C - was at risk.”
Benirschke says, as a nation, we need to aggressively attack the problem and not let the ignorance and embarrassment associated with the disease keep us from promoting research and testing. “The fact is, it doesn’t really matter how someone got it - whether from illegal drugs, a blood transfusion, an accidental needle stick in a hospital, or unsafe sex,” he says. “The important message needs to be: if you are at risk, you need to get tested.”
Benirschke decided to use his celebrity status to raise awareness about the disease, speaking openly to reporters and working with different non-profit groups to share his story and inform others. “We have to do as much as we can to educate the world community about the significance of hepatitis C and the potential problems associated with the virus. I’m optimistic we can pull together and win the fight, but it is critical that we get people tested and continue working diligently to find a cure,” he says.
The CDC Foundation Helps Fight a Global Problem - Part II
Approximately four million Americans have been infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and approximately 2.8 million are living with chronic infection. Between 8,000 and 10,000 die each year from chronic liver disease resulting from the infection. Globally, 170 million people are infected with HCV.
“We have effective means to prevent infection with hepatitis viruses, including HCV,” says Harold Margolis, M.D., EIS ‘75, chief of CDC’s Hepatitis Branch of the National Center for Infectious Diseases. “A higher level of prevention is still needed, however, along with improved therapies for persons with chronic disease.”
Assisting CDC in its efforts to combat hepatitis C, the CDC Foundation has brought organizations and individuals together in a variety of ways to fight HCV through education and research.
In the summer of l999, the CDC Foundation helped sponsor a CDC media briefing about HCV at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Soon afterward, scientists and health educators in CDC’s Hepatitis Branch developed plans for a campaign to inform the public about the disease. Again, the CDC Foundation assisted by identifying a funding partner, Shering-Plough Corporation, to support the project and pay for a communications fellow to work with CDC staff to implement the campaign. The project resulted in a series of 30- and 60-second television and radio public service announcements and newspaper advertisements aimed at educating people about how infection takes place, who should be tested and why testing is important. The PSAs, which were sponsored by the Office of the Surgeon General and CDC, reached approximately 11 million viewers.
“Since most people don’t know their infection status, this was a tremendously important effort,” Margolis says. “This initiative would not have been possible without the CDC Foundation’s help.”
Recognizing the need for a united, international effort to prevent new cases of viral hepatitis and liver disease and to address the need for better treatments, the U.S. Public Health Service and the World Health Organization sponsored the Tenth International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease in April 2000. The conference was hosted by CDC in Atlanta, and the CDC Foundation helped attract sponsors and funding partners. The symposium brought together 1,200 clinicians, scientists and public health experts from 70 countries to share the latest research on hepatitis viruses.
“By soliciting support to underwrite scholarships so people could travel from developing countries, the CDC Foundation was instrumental in overcoming barriers that would otherwise have prevented many experts from attending and participating,” says Hepatitis Branch deputy chief Richard Conlon.
A case in point: As a result of the conference, Eli Lilly and Company decided to expand its support of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellowship at CDC - a program coordinated through the Foundation. Two additional international Lilly Fellows are now doing research in the Hepatitis Branch, focusing on viral hepatitis and liver disease.