Kanwal Alvarez, assistant professor of biology, and Josiah Alamu, associate professor of public health, have big plans set in place to test for Hepatitis C within the homeless population of Central Illinois with the help of five UIS students.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Hepatitis C is a very contagious liver disease of varying severity. It surfaces when an individual is infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and is generally spread through contact with the blood of an infected person. Nowadays, this virus is often spread when individuals share infected needles.
The CDC reports that “Of every 100 people infected with the Hepatitis C virus, about 75-85 people will develop chronic Hepatitis C virus infection; of those, 60-70 people will go on to develop chronic liver disease, 5-20 people will go on to develop cirrhosis over a period of 20-30 years and 1-5 people will die from cirrhosis or liver cancer.”
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Labels: HCV, homeless