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CNN Live Today

Pamela Anderson Says She Is Undergoing Treatment for Hepatitis C

Aired March 21, 2002 - 13:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Actress Pamela Anderson says she's undergoing treatment now for hepatitis C. She says she contacted it by sharing a tattoo needle with her ex-husband, musician Tommy Lee. Lee denies that. The two are right now in a bitter custody battle over their children.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking into this live in Atlanta with us. Sanjay, good to see you. This disease afflicts millions of Americans, and important to point out what indeed it is. Good afternoon.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you, Bill. It does. In fact, about four million Americans every year are infected with hepatitis C. And there are all sorts of different reasons, there's different causes, different risk factors for getting it.

Among them: Blood transfusion, especially blood from earlier than July of 1992, contaminated drug or tattoo needles, Bill. You just mentioned that Pamela Anderson thinks that maybe a tattoo needle was the culprit here. Sexual intercourse with someone who is infected. Born to an infected mother.

But in one-third of the cases, Bill, we never really come up with a reason as to why the infection occurred at all. But those are some of the risk factors, some of the things that might have actually caused hepatitis C in Pamela Lee as well as the other four million people out there.

HEMMER: What is the prognosis for someone? Maybe not her in specific, but in general.

GUPTA: Right. Well, hepatitis C luckily is one of the most studied viral infections of the liver. It is one of five infections that commonly affect the liver, A, B, C, D and E. C is the most serious, although many of the people will just have very mild symptoms if any symptoms at all, and other people will progress to much more serious.

Specifically, about 20 percent of folks will go on to a complete recovery after they have the acute infection; 80 percent of people, on the other hand, will have a persistent infectious. Of the 80 percent, Bill, the 30 percent of those are sort of the most concerning. Those are people who will go on to what we come to know as cirrhosis, liver failure, things like that; 30 percent will just have a stable chronic hepatitis, and 40 percent sort of will be in between.

But about overall, 30 percent of that severe group may develop cirrhosis and may even go on to die from it. So it can be a very serious thing, although we have no idea, really, at this point what's going on with her specifically.

HEMMER: Sanjay, let me ask you this. If she claims that she got it through sharing a needle with her ex-husband Tommy Lee, he denies it, would he not be afflicted by it too, or not?

GUPTA: Right, Bill. In fact, if he were to be tested, he should have the same hepatitis C antibodies present in his blood.

Again, a lot of people might be walking around with hepatitis C antibodies and have absolutely no symptoms. So it is very possible that someone might have hepatitis C and not know it at all, and perhaps he will fall in that category.

HEMMER: Interesting story. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, live in Atlanta. Thanks, Sanjay. See you in a little bit later.

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