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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS May 23, 2016 | 75¢
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper
Hepatitis ignored but on the rise Infection unknown without testing BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A deadly liver disease is being ignored despite its growing prevalence, a state epidemiologist told the Clallam County Board of Health last week. Hepatitis C is on the rise on the North Olympic Peninsula and other regions across the country, said Dr. Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist for communicable diseases with the state Department of Health. “I don’t know of any other
infectious disease that we ignore so completely as hepatitis C,” Lindquist told the health board Tuesday. “There’s not a single case of Ebola that got ignored, right? There is not a single case of measles in Clallam County that would get ignored. “But you have hundreds of hepatitis C cases up here [being] ignored.” Lindquist said he is “turning up the heat” on hepatitis C. He received a grant from the Association of State Territorial Health Officials to prepare a
statewide epidemiology profile to “really describe the burden of hepatitis,” he said. An estimated 2.7 million to 3.5 million Americans have hepatitis C. In Washington state, the number is somewhere between 54,000 and 70,000, Lindquist said.
Liver damage If left untreated, hepatitis C can lead to liver cirrhosis, cancer and liver failure. A person can have chronic hepatitis C for decades without even knowing it. Most acute cases are not recognized. Only a quarter of those with acute hepatitis C have symptoms.
“They’re a lot like the flu, so during the flu season, a person with flu-like symptoms may have hepatitis C and you don’t even really know,” Lindquist said. “About four out of five remain infected for the remainder of their life.” Baby boomers born between 1946 and 1966 account for most hepatitis C cases, Lindquist said. Others at risk are those who have injected drugs, received blood before 1992, have been on long-term kidney dialysis, had abnormal liver tests or are HIVinfected. In rare cases, hepatitis C can spread through medical and dental infections, sexual contact or
through the shared use of personal items such as razors and piercing tools. “But clearly,” Lindquist said, “injection drug use is the No. 1 [cause].” “If you want to understand hepatitis C, you have to understand drug use,” he added. “It’s that simple.”
New medications The good news about hepatitis C is that new medications can cure it. The bad news is that those drugs cost upward of $100,000 for a full regimen. TURN
TO
HEPATITIS/A6
Search goes on for DOT worker
Serving cake easy as pie
Crews looking for truck near bridge PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
CHARLIE BERMANT/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Sarah Spaeth, left, serves George Rezendes a slice of double-chocolate cake at the fourth annual Cake Picnic at Pope Marine Park in Port Townsend on Saturday. An estimated 800 people attended the event that followed the Rhody Parade.
Finish just ducky for annual benefit derby Park ponds. Paquin was not present when his victory was announced, and could not immediately be reached by phone. In total, 45 prizes worth about $25,000 were up for grabs this year with BY CHRIS MCDANIEL proceeds benefiting the Olympic Medical PENINSULA DAILY NEWS Center Foundation and the Sequim PORT ANGELES — Bill Paquin of Rotary Club’s charitable projects. Port Angeles is one lucky duck. “Most of it goes to the hospital” and Paquin’s yellow rubber duck — one is “typically spent on medical equipof more than 29,500 entered into Sunment,” said Rick Smith, co-chairman of day’s 27th annual Great Olympic Penin- the 27th event, before the race. sula Duck Derby — was the first to The race began as a dump truck full float over the finish line, earning of rubber ducks, which was parked on Paquin a choice between a 2016 Tacoma the bank above the pond, upended its pickup truck or Corolla donated by load. Wilder Toyota of Port Angeles. TURN TO DERBY/A6 The derby was at the Lincoln
Annual event puts 29K ducks in pond
Your Peninsula
DAVE LOGAN/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Duck Derby officials Monte English, left and Bob Lovell watch as the ducks enter the finish chute in the Lincoln Park pond in Port Angeles on Sunday.
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SHINE — An active search for signs of a missing state Department of Transportation worker was resumed Sunday night. Originally expected to begin at about 4 p.m. Sunday, the search was moved back to about 7 p.m. because of tides, said Claudia Bingham Baker, communications manager for the state Department of Transportation’s Olympic Region. Searchers are looking for the Toyota pickup or other signs of an unidentified technician. The worker has not been identified at the request of his family, according to acting Secretary of Transportation Roger Millar. He is thought to have driven through a pedestrian cable railing on the lower deck and off the side of the Hood Canal Bridge as he left his shift last Monday night. The area being searched is between 320 and 360 feet deep, Bingham Baker said. The current in the area can get to about 5 knots, she said. After searching unsuccessfully since Tuesday, crews Friday began working with sonar equipment from Global Diving and Salvage of Seattle, which is more sophisticated than the equipment used earlier in the week. The advanced sonar equipment was expected to provide higher-density images and could scan a wider area in deeper water than the sonar equipment used earlier. By Saturday afternoon, the crews had completed a survey of a large area around the bridge and were downloading the data they had collected. The sonar images allow searchers to find “hot spots” — areas that are worth exploring with a submersible unmanned rover when currents and tides would allow its use. “This week has been a hard one for all of us, and I am proud of the professional and compassionate way in which our WSDOT family is handling this tragedy,” Millar said in a letter to Transportation employees Friday. “Difficult times still lay ahead and I encourage everyone to continue supporting each other as they have this week.”
CLASSIFIED COMICS COMMENTARY DEAR ABBY HOROSCOPE LETTERS NATION PENINSULA POLL PUZZLES/GAMES
B3 B5 A7 B5 B5 A7 A4 A2 B4
*PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
SPORTS SUDOKU WEATHER WORLD
B1 A2 A8 A4