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A lifeline for others has deadly disease
By JON WILSON, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Steve Kersker, a consistently visible advocate for the city's homeless and mentally ill, has disclosed that he has hepatitis C, the most serious form of the disease. He hopes to have a liver transplant to prolong his life and said he does not want to receive drug treatment because of its side effects. Kersker, 51, said he learned this month that the illness is in Stage 4, the final stage, which leads to cirrhosis. He said he has been told that without treatment or a transplant, his life expectancy is four to six years. "It was drug abuse" that caused the disease, Kersker said. "I was an (intravenous) drug abuser. I experimented with it. We didn't know anything about dirty needles, didn't know anything about anything. I was young and dumb." Hepatitis C is a blood-borne disease that affects about 4-million people in the United States, according to the American Liver Foundation. It is treated with drugs such as interferon and is the leading reason for liver transplants. The liver makes the bile needed to digest food. Other than IV drug users, other groups at risk for hepatitis include health care workers, firefighters and police officers. (See accompanying at-risk list.) A person can have hepatitis C for years without knowing it, according to foundation literature. A routine blood test can identify the disease. Kersker, who also writes a regular column for the weekly Northeast Neighborhood News, said he has battled mental illness since the early 1970s and abused drugs until about 1987. Treatment in mental hospitals, tenure in the Boley drug treatment program and religion helped turn his life around, he said. For several years, Kersker has been busy working with homeless and mentally ill people. He has helped organize meals for them. He is the director of the Florida Drop-In Center Association. Kersker peppers public officials with letters. He has led numerous demonstrations, including some downtown in 2000 at the Chamber of Commerce and the Yacht Club. He plans a Feb. 15 demonstration in front of U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young's downtown St. Petersburg office in support of increased funding for hepatitis research. A military veteran, Kersker has started a new advocacy group called Hep and Vet Action Now. About four years ago, Kersker started feeling overly tired and experienced nausea and a pain in his right side. At first he suspected ulcers. He said an examination at the Bay Pines Department of Veterans Affairs revealed no ulcers. He was diagnosed with allergies. But Kersker began wondering if his problems might be liver-related. Last year he went in for hepatitis tests. A blood test showed elevated liver enzymes; a liver biopsy later showed hepatitis C. Kersker learned he had Stage 4 on Jan. 8. He said that at first a nurse at Bay Pines told him that at age 51, he was too old to receive a new liver. (Other medical authorities disagree, and the Web site for the United Network for Organ Sharing shows that in the past five years, about 45 percent of the patients receiving new livers have been 50 and older.) VA doctors want Kersker to have treatment before trying to get on a transplant waiting list. The treatment usually involves a combination of interferon and rivavirin, also called Rebetron. Kersker said he is among a percentage of the population that does not respond well to the drugs, and that he doesn't want to risk unpleasant side effects. So he would like to get on a waiting list as soon as possible. "I'm looking at the long-term sense. I can function right now. Now's the time to figure out what to do when I get real sick," Kersker said. It usually takes several months to get on a list. Placement follows a series of tests that include psychological profiling. There are currently 18,752 people on the liver transplant waiting list, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. There were 4,954 transplants for 2000, the latest year for which figures are available. Treatment guidelines require the interferon regimen before a transplant can be considered, said Larry Christman, spokesman for the VA hospital at Bay Pines. "(Kersker) won't comply with treatment. The first course is not to take your liver. It's to try to save your liver," Christman said. "We do want him to come back to us. We don't want to discourage him. We want to assure him that no one is upset with him." Meanwhile, a vegetarian diet, meditation and yoga are helping, Kersker said. "Doing those things doesn't make the illness go away, (but) it definitely does help. And doing all the things I do helps, because it gets you out and doing things. You don't lay around and mope." Most likely carriersHere are some of the people who are most at risk of contracting hepatitis C: People who have ever injected drugs or shared needles. People who have received a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992. Receivers of long-term hemodialysis. Health care and emergency medical workers, if exposed to needle punctures. Infants whose birth mother had hepatitis C. People who have persistently abnormal liver function tests. People who have unprotected sex with multiple partners or who have a history of sexually transmitted diseases. Those who got a tattoo or a piercing with unsterile equipment. A blood test can diagnose hepatitis C. Source: The National Liver Foundation.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
