State Urges Hepatitis Test

Cheyenne, Wy – The staff physician for the state Health
Department is urging people at risk to have a blood test for
hepatitis C.
Doctor Gary Melinkovich says that since 1995, over
three-thousand people in Wyoming have been diagnosed with hepatitis
C and many of these people were unknowingly infected years ago.
Hepatitis C is generally spread through contact with
contaminated blood and, to a much lesser extent, sexual contact
with an infected person.
He says people who should get tested include those who received
blood transfusion or an organ transplant before 1992, received
clotting factors before 1987, or ever injected illicit drugs.
Hepatitis C tests can be done by a healthcare provider or at
most local public health offices.