A total of 228 hepatitis C cases were reported in 1998, more than double the 95 cases documented the year before and up from just two incidents in 1996, according to the county Public Health Department. The 1998 figures, included in the agency's Community Health Status Report, are the most recent available. The annual report, considered an overview of the county's general health, lists everything from the top 10 causes of death to how to immunize a child. The Board of Supervisors has not yet approved the study. Dr. Robert Levin, who oversees the Public Health Department, said this area's residents are healthier partly because they are more wealthy, as measured by the number of children under 18 living below the poverty level.
People here have enough money to ensure better medical care.
Inner cities have poverty, and poverty is related to both nutrition and access to medical care. But, like in most areas of the state, heart disease, cancer and strokes were the leading causes of death in Ventura County. Authorities believe the sharp increase in the number of hepatitis C cases locally is partly because the county is testing for it, something that wasn't done several years ago. Barbara Spraktes-Wilkins, an epidemiologist with the Public Health Department, said physicians have become more aware of the blood disease, which is most often spread through needles and, in the past, through blood transfusions. Less commonly the disease is spread through sexual contact.