HEPATITIS AND CANCER

Report #6592 9/3/95

If you suffer from chronic fatigue and muscle aches and pains, ask your doctor to order special blood tests from hepatitis B and C.

A significant number of people who have muscle and joint pains and a positive blood test for rheumatoid arthritis really have hepatitis C and not rheumatoid arthritis. (1) A major mistake made by some physicians is that they think that having normal liver tests rules out active hepatitis. You can have active hepatitis, even though all your liver tests are normal. (2) It is extremely important for you to receive the correct diagnosis, because the treatment for hepatitis is much different from that of most other causes of chronic fatigue and muscle and joint pains. If you have chronic hepatitis B or C and are not treated, you have up to a 10% chance of developing liver cancer. (3) Until recently, doctors had a dependable blood test to diagnose only hepatitis B. Now, there is also a dependable blood test for active hepatitis C. called hepatitis C RNA. The blood tests for hepatitis B are called hepatitis B surface antigen and core antibody.

Both hepatitis B and C are acquired through exposure to infected blood and semen. Hepatitis C is acquired most frequently from infected needles. The treatment is to give yourself injections of interferon three times a week for at least 6 months.(4,5) Several of the drug companies make up special packets that include the entire 6 months of interferon and syringes. Recent studies show that many people need to be treated for 18 months. If you have generalized muscle and joint pains and negative liver tests, you still could suffer from hepatitis B or C.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News