Free Meeting to Focus on Dealing With Hepatitis C

A free public forum will be held tonight in West Hollywood on Hepatitis C, a highly infectious, blood-borne disease discovered in 1989.

“Because the disease has no immediate symptoms, most people don’t know if they are infected,” said Mike Tormey, an epidemiologist with the Los Angeles Department of Health Services. “But 85% go on to become carriers.”

There is no vaccine for Hepatitis C, he added.

Intravenous drug users run the greatest risk of getting the disease, with an infection rate as high as 75%, he said.

The meeting is sponsored by L.A. Shanti, a nonprofit organization that provides free counseling and education to people with life-threatening illnesses such as AIDS and is funded through a grant from Roche Laboratories.

The forum will be held 7 to 9 p.m. at the Pacific Design Center in the Green Theatre, 8687 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood.

For more information call L.A. Shanti at (213) 962-8197 or (818) 908-8849.)