Canada: Warning to all baby boomers: get tested for Hep C

A Saskatoon nurse predicts a surge of liver disease among baby boomers due to undiagnosed Hepatitis C.

“We’re going to see this huge wave of patients with end stage liver disease that are going to be dying from, potentially, liver cancer, kidney failure due to issues with their liver, and this is now the beginning,” said Lesley Gallagher, a Hepatitis C treatment support nurse with the Saskatoon Infectious Disease Care Network in Riversdale.

“We’re seeing it now, and we’re going to keep on seeing it.”

The number of Canadians with advanced liver disease is increasing, according to a 2014 study published in the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. More than 20 per cent of those who are infected with Hepatitis C will have significant complications from their disease by 2035, the study found.

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