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HCV and Bewitched

The Editors at Hepatitis Central
June 3, 2005

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We have a long way to go before HCV gets the kind of acknowledgement as other infectious diseases. Part of the reason there is so much misunderstanding is that people are hesitant to speak out. No one really wants to be the poster child. Yet. To get more funding and acknowledgement from the government you can go to hepatitisactivist.org and automatically send a message to your representatives in congress. Given this kind of story, it seems like the least you can do.

Many angry at hepatitis joke in movie

NEW YORK | July 03, 2005 8:11:21 AM IST

Many with hepatitis C are angry at what they call an insensitive joke about the disease in the U.S. movie Bewitched, said the American Liver Foundation.

In the film, one character discourages romantic advances from another character, saying she has hepatitis C.

Tragically, this remarkably tasteless comment plays into the stigma that many people with hepatitis C have to cope with every single day, Frederick G. Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the American Liver Foundation, said in a statement.

I can’t imagine anyone in Hollywood making a joke about HIV infection, for example, said Thompson, but because the public is so uneducated about hepatitis C, it apparently seems acceptable to trivialize the disease in a comedic context, at the expense of millions of hepatitis sufferers.

The New York-based American Liver Foundation said it has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from moviegoers expressing outrage and dismay, according to Thompson.

Some 4 million people in the United States have been infected with hepatitis C, and 2.7 million of them are chronically infected.

About 10,000 people die each year from complications of hepatitis C.

(UPI)

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