In your opinion, who is ultimately responsible for public awareness of the disease?
That's a tough question. To some extent, I think the government has to do its job in making the public aware. I think physicians and specialists who know about the disease should be more involved in public awareness. Foundations such as the American Liver Foundation have played, and should play, an important role in making the public aware.
Why are there so many people familiar with HIV risk but not familiar with hepatitis C, which is far more common?
I think there are a few reasons. For one, HIV was really a killer. When HIV was first discovered, you made the diagnosis, and your patient was dead within one to two years. That's not true with hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a very indolent disease. It doesn't kill the majority of people infected with it, and I think therefore there was a little less alarm.
The other thing is, there were groups that were very instrumental in making the public aware of the HIV virus at the beginning. The gay community was very active in educating the public, as was the entertainment industry. And with hepatitis C, it just hasn't happened to that degree.
I think the public associates liver disease with alcohol abuse and IV drug use, and therefore, to some extent, it has a negative connotation among certain groups of people.
