In some cases, the social and psychological aspects of a disease become as important as the biological aspects thereof. This is more so when a sensitive segment of the population, such as the modern Baby Boomers are in focus. Diseases that carry a kindred stigma happen to lead within this scenario with Hepatitis C forming a textbook example (Turner et al, 2015) . Hepatitis C is a viral disease that is sorely transmitted through blood to blood contact with an infected person. With the advent of kindred diseases such as the dreaded HIV virus, the world has exponentially adjusted treatment regiments and hygiene approaches (Jorgensen et al, 2016) . This has essentially eliminated blood to blood contact in official medical settings. The unfortunate result of the same is that non-medical blood to blood contact, such as the one kindred to sharing needles between substance abusers has become one of the leading means of Hepatitis C transmission. This has been the main cause of the stigma kindred to the disease. It is, therefore, not a surprise that many people will be in denial about having Hepatitis C and avoid getting tested and treated for the same as much as possible, despite the fact that their particular transmission did not emanate from non-medical blood to blood contact. Research has found effective pharmacological control for Hepatitis C but the psychological and social problem of getting baby boomers accept testing and treatment remains and this forms the focus of the instant research paper.
Background
As with many viral infections, it is almost impossible to tell that one has Hepatitis C until it is too late. Too late in the instant scenario often means liver cancer, liver cirrhosis or a blood vessel disorder caused by the long term effects of having the Hepatitis C virus in the liver (Jorgensen et al, 2016; Rashrash et al, 2017) . Research has shown that upon infection, the said virus will lodge itself in the patient’s liver and gradually cause damage in the course of decades. Therefore, a person who may have pursued a super healthy lifestyle for their entire conscious lives could still be carrying a passive Hepatitis C infection, which will eventually manifest with deadly consequences. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this aspect makes the baby boomers a population division of focus for the aforesaid disease (CDC, 2015) . CDC defines baby boomers as those born between 1945 and 1965, a duration of extremely high birth rates. The world was reorganizing itself and moving out of the utter cares of total war to the organized chaos of the cold war. According to CDC, baby boomers have a five times likelihood of having Hepatitis C than other adults (CDC, 2015) . This is the premise of the contention that the Hepatitis C problem in America is as much as a social issue as it is a biological and/or medical one.
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Purpose and Significance
The purpose of the instant research paper combines social, psychological and physiological perspectives within the relationship between the target population and the disease of reference. The social perspective is kindred to both why Hepatitis C has a higher prevalence among Baby Boomers and why it is trickier to treat it among the said group. According to available research, the baby boomers have a higher prevalence because of poorer clinical methods in the mid-20th century America (Allison et al., 2016) . The disease is trickier to handle based on the fact that Hepatitis C has today been associated with injectable substance abuse, a tag that any baby boomer would want to avoid. The aforesaid connection with substance abuse brings in the psychological perspective with the stigma associated with the said sickness.
Available research show that stigma has caused many baby boomers to avoid testing for the disease (Rashrash et al, 2017) . This leads to the discovery of the disease being made when it is already too late. The physiology perspective relates to the fact that Hepatitis C manifests in a physically discoverable fashion decades after initial infection. This means that the baby boomers are being affected now by events that took place way back in the childhoods, or even at birth (Jorgensen et al, 2016) . The significance of the understanding of the three perspective lies in the fact that they lead directly to having an understanding on how to intervene in the said problem. Liver damage is extremely painful for their sufferers and also extremely expensive to treat. Most of this pain and expense can be resolved if the Hepatitis is detected before liver damage ensues. This is more so because with early detection, pharmacological retroviral intervention is able to control 95% of all chronic infections (Jorgensen et al, 2016) .
Proposed Interventions
Seeking to Eliminate Stigma
Research has found that baby boomers are extremely sensitive, very organized and consider themselves to be ideal Americans, more so when compared to later generations. They are, therefore, very sensitive to what ‘might’ be said about them (Allison et al, 2016) . Unfortunately, during the time of their birth and early childhoods, clinical practices were not very keen on blood to blood contact issues such as the sharing of needles, means of sterilizing of clinical tools, contact between mother and child during birth and blood transfusion. Therefore, many of the baby boomers contracted Hepatitis C in their early years and grew with it. Most of them later assumed stringent health and hygiene regimens and rose to be symbols of healthy living within societies (Allison et al, 2016) . Yet, they were still carrying a disease that has come to be associated with individuals whose character is the exact opposite of what the baby boomers stand for, to wit absolute hygiene and healthy living. It is no wonder, then, that the baby boomer would abhor being even remotely associated with hepatitis C. As HIV and AIDS have revealed, the cure for stigma is enlightenment since stigma is based on ignorance (Turner et al, 2015) . It is, however, important to understand that stigma is not based on the patient, but rather in the general society. To eliminate stigma, health organizations must launch a massive campaign seeking to have the entire society understand that having Hepatitis C does not just emanate from injectable substance abuse and poor hygiene (Turner et al, 2015) . Further, information about the elongated incubation period of the disease must be disseminated in a comprehensible manner. Elimination of stigma will go a long way in encouraging baby boomers to come forward and seek help for the said disease.
Learning from Successful Kindred Projects
All researchers agree that early testing is the most significant step in resolving chronic Hepatitis C more so with a confirmed 95% successful intervention rate (Turner et al, 2015) . This, as shown above, is not easy, but more complex feats have been achieved in America. Going for an HIV test, older men getting tested for prostate cancer, and young women going for a Pap smear were among the greatest social-cum-medical challenges two decades ago. Today, they are no longer a problem since the society has come to readily accept it. It is now easy to hear men discuss their latest prostate check and even make fun of it, women openly talking about pap smears and youngsters discussing HIV tests. This was achieved through demystifying the problem and encouraging social discourse about it (Turner et al, 2015) . HIV advocacy groups, for example, looked for high profile patients and got them to openly talk about the infection as well as getting tested for it. A textbook example was Senator Obama as he then was, publicly taking an HIV test in Kenya during a visit. This public relations event got many people talking about HIV tests thus eliminating kindred mystery (Knight et al, 2015) . The same has been done for the extremely personal and uncomfortable Pap smear and prostate test. If the same was done about Hepatitis C test, it would move tens of thousands of baby boomers to undergo the requisite tests. The result would be early intervention and an exponentially higher chance of positive intervention.
Voluntary and Privileged Testing and Intervention
Many baby boomers have reached the age where Chronic Hepatitis C is beginning to manifest and with devastating consequences. These may, therefore, not be able to wait for the more comprehensive and long term solutions indicated above. Based on kindred research, an interim and effective solution would be to provide for private, priviledged, and voluntary testing (Knight et al, 2015) . Baby boomers are known to be health enthusiasts and coupled with their advancing age, a frequent visits of health care institutions. During these routine visits, the baby boomers can be informed about the existence of the confidential testing programs. If they are convinced about the confidentiality and lack of judgment, the baby boomers are more likely to accept the testing, a fact that would also help solve the social and psychological barriers kindred to Hepatitis C intervention.
Any disease with an over 90% successful intervention rate should not be a major world problem as Hepatitis C is. This predicament, as has been shown above is mainly caused by the psychological and social problems kindred to the baby boomers, who happen to be the most affected. The key to Hepatitis C control, therefore, lies in finding an effective means of getting the baby boomers to accept both testing and treatment. To achieve this, there is an urgent need to address the problem of stigma. Learning from other sensitive diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer, and prostate cancer can provide a fitting solution to this. Among the plausible solution also lies the development of a secret means of providing testing and intervention services for the said disease. With the elimination of stigma still being a complex social undertaking, further research should be carried out on how to enable the baby boomers to ignore the stigma or act in spite of it.
References
Allison, W. E., Chiang, W., Rubin, A., Oshva, L., & Carmody, E. (2016). Knowledge about hepatitis C virus infection and acceptability of testing in the 1945–1965 birth cohort (baby boomers) presenting to a large urban emergency department: a pilot study. The Journal of emergency medicine , 50 (6), 825-831
CDC. (2015, May 31). People Born 1945-1965 & Hepatitis C . Retrieved July 22, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/populations/1945-1965.htm
Jorgensen, C., Carnes, C. A., & Downs, A. (2016). “Know More Hepatitis:” CDC's National Education Campaign to Increase Hepatitis C Testing among People Born between 1945 and 1965. Public Health Reports , 131 (2_suppl), 29-34
Knight, R., Small, W., & Shoveller, J. A. (2015). HIV stigma and the experiences of young men with voluntary and routine HIV testing. Sociology of Health & Illness, 38 (1), 153-167. doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12345
Rashrash, M., Maneno, M., Wutoh, A., Ettienne, E., & Daftary, M. (2017). Predictors of hepatitis C testing intention among African American baby boomers. Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health , 7 (2), 119-122
Turner, B. J., Taylor, B. S., Hanson, J., Liang, Y., Veerapaneni, P., Villarreal, R., ... & Fiebelkorn, K. (2015). High priority for hepatitis C screening in safety net hospitals: results from a prospective cohort of 4582 hospitalized baby boomers. Hepatology , 62 (5), 1388-1395
