This was different from the hepatitis virus Quinton Moore knew as a young man.
A few days of rest, and in most cases, the hepatitis A he had contracted from contaminated groundwater would normally be enough to make him feel better.
But months after a doctor diagnosed Moore with hepatitis C, he was starting to lose weight and no matter how hard he tried to shake it, he felt a general malaise.
“I thought it might be the end of me,” he said recently.
That was three years ago. Now thanks to a new drug, the 62-year-old Decatur man is making plans to retire to Florida with his wife.
The Hepatitis C virus, which affects nearly 4 million Americans, can cause serious liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer, though most people who are infected don’t even know it.
The biggest group consists of baby boomers like Moore who might have been infected decades ago either through blood transfusions, sex, intravenous drug use or hemophilia medications.
Moore suspects he got the disease while assisting a bloody colleague who’d fallen and busted his head.
Because hepatitis C can lie dormant for so long without any detectable symptoms, doctors say all adults should be screened at least once for the virus just to make sure they don’t have it.
“Hepatitis C is a neglected disease in the United States that is killing thousands,” said Dr. Norman Gitlin, an Atlanta liver specialist. “Next time you go to Turner Field and they announce that 50,000 people are watching the Braves, 1,000 of them have hepatitis C.”
Gitlin said that of the 4 million Americans with hepatitis C, only about 800,000 or 20 percent have been identified or offered treatment.
The reason for that is two-fold, he said. One is the public is woefully unaware of the virus and two, most people don’t have symptoms.
Gitlin said that in addition to blood transfusions and IV drug use, people who snort cocaine through a straw, get body piercings and tattoos are most at-risk of contracting the virus.
“Those five risk factors account for 80 percent of people who get hepatitis C,” he said. “Ten percent of people are doctors and nurses or paramedics who get it from accidental needle sticks; and 10 percent we can’t find a cause."
Although there is no vaccine against hepatitis C, Gitlin said the disease is curable. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration two weeks ago approved two new oral medications – Incivek and Victrelis – that significantly enhances the success rate in treating the virus and in some instances have even shortened the treatment duration.
“The other side of the coin is it accounts for 54 percent of all liver transplants in the country,” Gitlin said. “So you need to be identified and treated before it progresses to late-stage disease.”
Moore was one step away from there, he said, when he finally sought treatment three years ago.
When he was first diagnosed in the spring of 2008, he said, he ignored all the warning signs.
“It didn’t make a big impression on me,” because, he said, he’d had hepatitis A twice before and it eventually went away.
“I just let it slide,” Moore said.
Eventually, he said, the pounds started to drop off and he was feeling a lot worse.
“I was scared,” Moore said. “My liver had been compromised almost to the final stage. I didn’t feel like doing anything except dragging myself around."
Then a colleague told him about a clinical drug trial that was about to get under way at the Emory Infectious Disease Clinic.
Moore signed up and on Dec. 30, 2008, doctors began administering treatment. Two months in he started to gain weight and when the trial was over six months later, Moore said he tested negative for the virus.
Tests showed he was still negative in June 2010.
At his home the other day, Moore said he’s making plans again and looking forward to the future.
“I don’t think I could’ve gotten where I am now if it had not been for the success of the treatment,” he said. “I think I would’ve been just waiting to die.”
The following symptoms could occur with hepatitis C infection:
• Fever
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Abdominal pain
• Dark urine
• Clay-colored bowel movements
• Joint pain
• Jaundice (yellow color in the skin or eyes)
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
