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Fund to help support liver disease research by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations Despite her death, a woman’s 24-year battle with Hepatitis C will continue for others with the generosity of her friends and family through the Corky Harrison Liver Research & Education Fund.   Corky Harrison’s family, friends, and members of the MUSC Liver Service staff gathered at the College of Nursing to honor the late nurse through the establishment of the Corky Harrison Liver Research & Education Fund. (From left in front are Corky’s children: Sally Harrison, Joey Petrides, Jake Harrison; and husband, Ben.) Named for the late Corinne “Corky” Harrison, the perpetual endowment was established with funds to support a memorial for the former MUSC nurse and mother of three. It will be used to promote continuing scientific and clinical research, education for nurses specializing in liver disease and training for emerging physicians.   Harrison died earlier this year from pneumonia, but for most of her life, she endured Hepatitis C, which she contracted as a young nurse working in a dialysis clinic at a Veterans Hospital in Atlanta in 1983.   Though not much was known about Hepatitis C at the time, the disease that largely is associated with hypodermic needle use among illicit drug circles, began to appear in large numbers among Vietnam veterans and drug addicts. Harrison contracted Hepatitis C from a contaminated needle stick.   Harrison, who came to Charleston in 1990, worked at MUSC. She sought help from Adrian Reuben, M.D., an internationally acclaimed liver specialist, who prescribed two experimental treatment protocols involving the use of two drugs, interferon and ribavirin. But having fought the common and difficult strain of the virus for so long, Harrison simply was too worn down to survive her fight with pneumonia.   Even after her death, Harrison’s family and friends remain so committed to supporting advances in liver therapies at MUSC that they established the special fund, which they hope will continue to grow. Sneak attack, silent incubation The transmission rate of Hepatitis C between an infected person and a healthy person  depends on the route of transmission but is most common with recreational needle-sharing and between 1 percent and 5 percent with needle stick injuries to health care workers. The majority (85 percent) of exposed persons remain infected with the virus, Reuben said.   Roughly 3 million people (between 1 percent and 2 percent), in the United States have Hepatitis C, with higher percentages in inner city urban centers and lower numbers in rural communities.   The disease, which also can be transmitted sexually at about one per 1,000 persons per year, can apparently lay dormant in a person for years.   “A lot of people we see now are no longer drug-using and are respectable members of society,” said Reuben, whose clinic treats several hundred of these patients each year. “Many of them came through the 1960s and 1970s when [intravenous drug] experimentation was part of the social culture.”   In most cases, about 10 years or more could pass before someone experiences symptoms of liver disease. After about 20 years, cirrhosis can develop, and after 30 years, liver cancer.   Because of the work conducted at facilities such as MUSC, and research and therapies championed by the MUSC Liver Service, Hepatitis C is no longer the death sentence or direct path to transplantation that it used to be.   Medication, and transplantation, if necessary, has made treatment for Hepatitis C among the most promising among major medical therapies in terms of greatest success for patient dollars spent, with even greater promise for the future as new therapies are introduced.   Still, with only three full-time hepatologists and one specialized hepatology nurse practitioner, MUSC’s liver program could be described as stretched thin. With its small staff, the clinic serves the entire state as the only medical center in South Carolina that has specific skills directed at liver disease and direct access to the latest clinical, pharmaceutical and scientific research. “We certainly could use several more full time liver specialists,” Reuben said.   Reuben, who will direct the Corky Fund, estimates that at its current level, the fund should generate about $2,500 in interest annually. He said he hopes to recruit famous liver experts to MUSC to lecture on the advances in Hepatitis C, and research and treatment of other liver diseases.   Reuben has recommended that the funds be used for: Lectureship support at MUSC’s Biennial Liver Disease and Transplant Symposium. At least half of the attendees at this symposium are community nurses seeking further training. Educational support to send nurses, physician trainees in liver disease, and other staff to regional and national medical meetings. Scholarship assistance to nurses who would like to attend the Biennial Symposium. Supplemental funding to support an annual Liver Research lecture during Medicine Grand Rounds. Support for laboratory and clinical liver research, to help garner additional funding “Our families feel this is a fitting way to commemorate Corky’s life,” her husband Ben Harrison wrote to family and friends. “To me and the rest of our family, it is a means to help bring closure and acceptance to the tragic loss of Corky in the prime of her life. We are all trying desperately to create something positive from this experience.”   For information on supporting the Corky Harrison Fund call Jane McCullough, director of development, Department of Medicine, at 792-4280.     Friday, Dec. 7, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.