Jon Secada Joins Campaign on Chronic Hepatitis C

Grammy-award winning Cuban-American singer Jon Secada added his voice on Thursday to a growing public health campaign to raise awareness of chronic hepatitis C infection.

Secada, 50, revealed that his father died last November from complications associated with hepatitis C, after failing to seek proper medical treatment for many years and keeping the disease a secret, even from family members.

Secada is joining forces with the American Liver Foundation in a campaign 'Tune in to Hep C,' backed by fellow singers Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers and Natalie Cole, 62, the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole.

Cole had a life-saving liver transplant in 2009 after she was stricken with the disease, the legacy of drug abuse in her earlier life.

Secada hopes speaking out about his family's experience can help break a taboo attached to the disease and encourage greater understanding about its risks, he told Reuters in an interview.

"My father chose not to tell anyone about his disease for a long time, and he chose not to take action against it for reasons I may never understand," he said. "By the time he was able to explore any aggressive medications it was too late."

Secada does not know how his father contracted the virus, which began to affect his health about eight years ago. His father, Jose Secada, was a political prisoner in Cuba for three years in the 1960s and left the island with his family in 1970.

"Before he passed away, he told me that he wanted me to share his story to help other people like him who have chronic hepatitis C but aren't taking action," Secada said.

"Take it from me, you need to talk to your doctor and talk to your family."

An estimated 3 million to 4 million Americans and 180 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, which causes progressive damage to the liver over many years. If untreated it can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and death. It is also the leading cause of liver transplants.

The virus that causes it is spread through the blood, typically through shared needles or from blood transfusions prior to the early 1990s, when routine screening for the virus became standard practice.

"That's why we are seeing an outbreak of it now. The baby boomers were more exposed to it," said Dr. Leopoldo Arosemena, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami who specializes in liver diseases.

Others picked up the virus from sharing razors or needles used for tattoos or intravenous drug use. The latter created the stigma associated with the disease.

(Reuters)