§1111.2. Legislative findings; purpose
A. The legislature hereby finds that:
(1) Hepatitis C is classified as a silent killer where no recognizable signs or
symptoms occur until severe liver damage has occurred.
(2) Hepatitis C has been characterized by the World Health Organization as a disease
of primary concern to humanity.
(3) Studies indicate that one and eight tenths percent of the population, nearly four
million Americans, carry the virus HCV that causes hepatitis C.
(4) The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimated that thirty thousand acute new
infections occur each year in the United States and only twenty-five to thirty percent of those
are diagnosed.
(5) Current data sources indicate that eight to ten thousand Americans die from
hepatitis C each year.
B. It is the intent of the legislature to provide education, heighten awareness, and
enhance knowledge and understanding of hepatitis C in order to promote prevention and
early detection of the disease and to prevent the transmission thereof.
Acts 1999, No. 796, §1; Acts 2001, No. 940, §1; Redesignated from R.S.
40:1300.162 by HCR 84 of 2015 R.S.