Few people seek help at hepatitis clinic

About 6,000 Pasco residents probably have been exposed to the disease, experts say, but only two patients showed up to be tested at the clinic last month.

By RYAN DAVIS St. Petersburg Times This is an older published article.

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Barbara Holton anticipated that her Good Samaritan Health Clinic would be overwhelmed when it opened a one-of-a-kind hepatitis C testing and treatment program more than a year ago.

After all, hepatitis C affects 4-million Americans and leads to complications that kill 10,000 people a year, according to the American Liver Foundation.

But after 14 months, the clinic has tested only about 25 people for the viral disease, and it has just six active patients, said Holton, the clinic's executive director.

Just two people showed at the last monthly screening.

"People aren't aware they have it," said Erma Woods, the registered nurse who was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1999 and volunteers at Good Samaritan.

If 1.8 percent of the country's population has been exposed to the disease, as the American Liver Foundation reported, Pasco possibly has nearly 6,000 such residents.

About 80 percent of those people would be clinically infected, said Alan Brownstein, the president and chief executive officer of the New York-based American Liver Foundation. Most have no symptoms and do not know they are infected.

But their livers are moving toward failure, and many of those people could seek help at Good Samaritan.

The 10-year-old non-profit clinic, 4035 Thys Road, serves Pasco low- or no-income patients without insurance. Last year, it served more than 1,000 patients, mostly working poor, Holton said.

It is funded by federal money channeled through the county government, county money, the United Way, donations and fundraisers. For the current fiscal year it received $48,000 in federal money and $16,500 in county money, according to county figures.

About 60 volunteers and two paid workers keep it running.

The hepatitis C program was started with a $2,800 grant from the American Liver Foundation. It is the only program started by the foundation, and as far as Brownstein knows, it is the only such program in the country.

For the standard $5 fee per visit, it offers confidential blood testing, counseling, any medical work such as biopsies and an expensive injection and medication treatment plan, which is successful for about 30 percent of patients, said Maxwell Rent, the New Port Richey doctor who volunteers to run Good Samaritan's hepatitis C program.

Infected people cannot get rid of the disease, but they can greatly slow its effects, even if the medication fails, by making lifestyle changes, such as controlling their diets and not drinking alcohol, Rent said.

Hepatitis is characterized by inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis C is the most serious form. It can lead to failure of the liver, which is needed to digest food.

Many people wrongfully believe they can get it through casual contact, Woods said, and it has taken on an inaccurate stigma that keeps people from seeking treatment.

"Remember when HIV first became talked about, it was the 'gay disease,' " Woods said. "Well, hepatitis C is the 'drug users' disease."

Because the clinic serves the indigent, lack of transportation and an inability to schedule work around the clinic's schedule may also keep potential patients away, Woods said. The program could handle at least 15 patients at each of its monthly
screenings, Holton said.

The initial hepatitis C test requires just a few drops of blood. "I want to help people," Holton said. "That's why this clinic opened. If they don't come to us, we can only do so much."