The people who know hepatitis C call it "the silent killer."

They call it that because it can live in its victim for five, 10, 20 years doing its damage to the liver, before any symptoms appear.

The term "silent" could also be used for the way the medical establishment seemingly has ignored the disease.

The attitude reminds me of when AIDS first raised its ugly head. In the early days of that disease, few people or organizations were willing to put in the effort and money to attack it because it was only something that affected "those people." In the case of AIDS, gays were "those people"; in the case of hep C, "those people" are druggies and the homeless.

But it's not just gays who are stricken with AIDS, and it's not just druggies or the homeless who have hep C.

Advocates, who have been working for years to raise awareness of the disease and convince the government to provide more funds, have not been able to mount a public—awareness campaign as the gays have for AIDS. They haven't caught the public's attention as the anti—breast cancer advocates have. Why? Most people can't get too excited about throwing their hard—earned tax dollars at a disease that they perceive — if they even think about it — as largely self—inflicted.

If only that were the case.

Before 1992, there was no way to test blood or tissues for the hep C virus. This often meant that persons, unknowingly carrying the virus, could donate (or sell) blood and pass on the disease. Two of the people I interviewed for the story in today's Lifestyles section are fairly sure they did just that. They can only guess at the number of people they infected, through no fault or intention of their own.

Veterans are also at a high risk of having the disease.

I'll use myself as an example.

I was an Army medic in Vietnam who treated the sick and injured. It wasn't uncommon for me to have other soldiers' blood or other bodily fluids on my skin almost every day.

By the luck of the draw, the disease passed me by, but I easily could easily have been infected. Back in the day, field medics didn't use rubber gloves or masks for a number of reasons: We were ignorant of the danger; we saw ourselves as young and invulnerable; and we had more important things to do — like saving lives.

The military had another chance to infect myself and many others in the mid-'70s when another swine flu threatened the country. Back then, they had this really efficient way of injecting drugs. They used an air gun that shot the serum into arm after arm, allowing the medics to quickly inoculate a large number of people without having to take the time to change syringes or always taking time to clean the gun between uses. So if person A had a disease, the gun could easily transfer the germs to person B, quickly and efficiently.

No one knows how many veterans received more than just the flu shot.

Other groups who could be infected are medical professionals; first—responders such as firefighters or police officers; and upstanding folks who, in their younger days, did a single stupid thing and became infected.

The statistic hep C advocates use is that more than 80 percent of the people who have the disease don't know it. While I'm not sure how they can substantiate that figure, I am convinced that a large number of people are walking around with the disease untreated. Walking around, leading their daily lives, while the virus silently eats away at their bodies.

The facts:

• There were 3,725 deaths from chronic liver disease in California in 2002.

• Chronic viral hepatitis C is a leading cause of cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and liver cancer.

What to do? If you think you're at risk from past activities, tell your doctor to order the test. Give a little blood. The test will either clear your mind or it will open the door to treatment. And like all diseases, the earlier the treatment, the greater the chance of recovery.

John Hollis is an Appeal—Democrat copy editor and features writer.

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/people-86740-silent-aids.html