ESPRIT LIBRE // Press Archive

Ask the Expert (Soap Opera Digest 6/26/07)

After falling ill, One Life to Live's Jessica received grave news: She has hepatitis C, which evolved into liver cancer, and she needed a transplant. Alan Franciscus, a hep C sufferer and executive director of HCV Advocate, sheds light on the true nature of this virus.

Soap Opera Digest: While she was living as her alternate personality, Tess, Jessica was with multiple sexual partners. Could she have contracted hep C this way and coudl she have passed it on to her husband, Antonio, and lover, Nash?
Alan Franciscus: People passing on hepatitis C through sex is very uncommon. It's not an STD.

Digest: She also once used heroin and the needle was contaminated.
Franciscus: The No. 1 way it's contracted is by people sharing needles that have hepatitis C-infected blood in them or through blood transfusions. Some health care employees also get it from working with blood, but that's only about 2 percent. If there's any risk for coming into contact with blood, then you have the risk for hep C.

Digest: Could Jessica's baby daughter have contracted it?
Franciscus: You do see some cases where it's passed from mother to child, about 5 percent.

Digest: Jessica presumably contracted the virus around 2005 and showed almost no symptoms until recently. She then suddenly became ill and developed liver cancer. Does hep C always act this quickly?
Franciscus: No. That's a big error. It generally takes 10, 20 years longer and most people don't get sick with hepatitis C. Liver cancer is actually rare with hep C -- about 2 to 5 percent of people with the virus get it.

Digest: What are some symptoms of hep C for someone who has liver cancer?
Franciscus: Fluid retention, brain damage from too much ammonia in the brain, yellowing of the skin, heavy fatigue, mental problems.

Digest: Jessica's husband, Antonio, tested as a match for a liver donation. Does the donor have to be related?
Franciscus: No, but it's very difficult to find a transplant match. Plus, a live donor can experience complications during the operation. Donating organs when you die can help save lives. Most livers used in transplants are from cadavers.

Digest: In addition to liver transplants, what other treatments are available for those with hepatitis C?
Franciscus: You can take a product called interferon/ribavirin for chronic hep C. They won't treat anyone with this treatment for liver cancer. But Jessica doesn't look like she has cancer -- she looks pretty healthy [laughs]!
-- By Naomi Rabinowitz