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At first, Steve Pollard felt like he just had a touch of the flu. Today, seven years and two liver transplants later, the Ottawa man is a vocal advocate for the need for hepatitis C screening.
“If you don’t get tested, you don’t know your status. They can’t fix you,” said Pollard, 48.
Pollard was living “a decent life” in 2009 when he first fell ill — a family man who drank little and didn’t have the “high-risk lifestyle” often associated with the disease. But he did have one risk factor that has been identified as the most common element among the estimated 300,000 Canadians infected by hepatitis C: The year on his birth certificate.
Read more…http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/07/24/advocates-push-need-for-hepatitis-c-screening