MultiCare Yakima Memorial has a Hepatitis C Clinic at Memorial Cornerstone Liver Clinic, where there is a 97.8% cure rate. Our goal is for a Hep C Free Yakima.
Get tested for Hepatitis C. It's easy, fast and could save your life, because Hep C is curable.
(Hep C is the leading cause of liver cancer and liver transplantation in the United States.)
The problem with Hepatitis C is that most people don't know they have it. Hepatitis C is called the silent killer because there are no symptoms until cirrhosis. After decades of infection, the first thing that happens to you is cirrhosis, and then liver cancer.
About 75 percent of those with Hepatitis C are Baby Boomers (people born between 1945-1965). And they don't realize they had risk factors for Hep C.
Hepatitis C: "There isn't any system in the body that it doesn't affect," says Tanda Ferguson, ARNP, of The Liver Clinic at Cornerstone Medicine.
Find out more: The Liver Clinic at Memorial Cornerstone Medicine, 509-573-3819.
What is Hepatitis C and its risks?
- It's a bloodborne virus infection. People get it mainly through blood contact, and often from having a blood transfusion prior to July 1993 or vaccinations in the 1950s or '60s.
- There's a 5 percent chance of an infected woman giving her baby Hep C at the time of birth.
- Currently, sharing needles: This is the biggest risk factor in Yakima.