There are about 160,000 inmates in California prisons and about 41 percent of them, or roughly 60,000, are infected with Hepatitis C, according to Dr. Joseph Bick, chief medical officer at California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Some veterans who acquire drug habits while serving often contract the virus by sharing needles for drug use, according to experts.
Inmates often contract the virus through shared needles, sex or unclean tattooing instruments.
Currently, it is estimated that 12,000 people die each year in the United States from the virus. That number is expected to rise to 38,000 by 2010, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Solano County there are 676 reported cases of the virus, with almost half of those cases at CMF, according to Dana Littlepage, a public health nurse who specializes in communicable diseases with the Solano County Department of Health and Social Services. But it is difficult to know exactly how many people in the county have the virus, because those with Hepatitis C will often not feel the effects of it and will not seek treatment. State Sen. Richard Polanco, a Los Angeles Democrat, recently introduced a bill that would establish a statewide system of screening people for the virus as well as educate and train health officials to treat it.