CDC to baby boomers: Get tested for hepatitis C

CDC to baby boomers: Get tested for hepatitis C

www.usnews.com

U.S. health officials want all baby boomers to get tested for hepatitis C.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released draft recommendations calling for all baby boomers to get a one-time blood test for the liver disease. That's everyone born from 1945 to 1965.

The hepatitis C virus is most commonly spread through sharing needles to inject drugs. Before 1992, it was also spread through blood transfusions.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.cdc.gov

We have all heard of the spread of this disease via blood transfusions, sharing needles, and other faulty hospital procedures such as lack of sterilization.

My first question is, will these tests cost anything and will there be any accountability for the culprits who caused the spread of the disease even though it will be next to impossible to trace where the infections came from, so from a legal stand point, this will be a nigthmare for the victims.

I have a hunch that this may lead to a whole lot of people finding out they have had hep c for most their life due to "advances in medical science".

Perhaps there is a new hep c vaccine or treatment on the horizon and this is their way of rounding up test subjects, and customers of course.

www.usnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This article is very interesting.
What's even more interestng is that it does not list a reason why so many baby boomers may be effected.

Hepatitis C can be a serious problem.

But I wonder how many new cases would be created by mass testing ?

If anyone is thinking about getting a blood test....

Be very careful ...... there's many new cases reported every month.

This case in Las Vegas from 2008 is very alarming and can happen anytime anywhere !!!

[unsourced quote removed]

Trust is a word that is used casually by many people, but when it comes to seeking medical care, we need to believe and trust in our doctors and nurses. To provide care to their patients, they are given access to our bodies and our stories so that they can offer care and help. When that trust is violated, it affects not only that one patient, but it questions the whole system.

Such may be the case in Las Vegas, when patients at a clinic that performs endoscopy procedures were infected with the hepatitis C virus. It seems that personnel at the clinic used unsafe practices when it came to giving medications while performing procedures. It is reported that the contamination came from syringes that were reused on multiple patients. As well, anesthetic drugs packaged for single patient use were given to multiple patients. Dr. Lawrence Sands, the chief medical officer of the Southern Nevada Health District, said that the unclean and unsafe injection practices had been going on for years.

Hepatitis C: Nightmare in Vegas

Lawsuits all over the place:
Las Vegas Hepatitis C Outbreak Cases Get Settlements

Originally posted by priceless34
This article is very interesting.
What's even more interestng is that it does not list a reason why so many baby boomers may be effected.

The article does hint at some of the main reasons the disease has spread.

The hepatitis C virus is most commonly spread through sharing needles to inject drugs. Before 1992, it was also spread through blood transfusions.

There are many other possible ways to contract this disease but the conspiracy nut in me wants to consider some less mainstream explanations that I may choose to point out once I have the chance to do some more in depth research.

If I can find some solid evidence of what I'm thinking I will make sure to add it to this thread.

reply to post by xuenchen


One of the cities I lived in had a major problem with kidney dyalisis machines not being cleaned properly. This was a high risk area with lots of intravenious drug use. Quite a few people had contracted Hep C from that hospital alone. This is not an isolated incident either, it happens quite often in Canada

Some hospital workers are too lazy to clean their surgical tools which means any visit to the hospital can be risky. Just another reason to avoid hospitals if you ask me.

I can actually see the reasoning behind this. HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) is actually much more common than people think, and is spread a bit easier than things like HIV. Mostly because HCV can live on a surface for hours sitting on a hard surface, let alone soft absorbent materials. HIV cannot live this long without a viable host. Potentially, touching an opened wound to a desk that had not been properly cleaned after contact could result in infection.

Many people are asymptomatic until they develop cirrhosis, at which point treatment becomes more limited (though not impossible) and major complications occur. I have known people who used injection drugs once, sometimes as much as 30 years ago, and never knew they had HCV until they started to develop symptoms. This has also been an issue with those who gave blood back when screening and safe injection practices weren't as stringent as they are now-a-days.

With recent HCV treatment regimens, people can clear the virus in as little as 3 months depending on the treatment (most ones from a year ago were 6 mo to 2 years to clear), though it is VERY expensive for those who do not have coverage (very similar to the cost of treating HIV, as many of the anti-retrovirals are used for both). Tricky part is retro (RNA) viruses evolve incredibly fast, resulting in literally tens of thousands of strains of HCV, many of which have developed immunity to the most commonly used drugs, and necessitating the need to create newer and more effective ones through the decades. HCV research has just come unbelievably far in the last few years, which I can see as a potential motivator to this story as there is much more that one can do about HCV today. I can also see them potentially trying to target the baby-boomers as many had experimented with many different types of drugs, putting them more at risk. And this is a legitimate concern, its not uncommon to see areas where 60% of injection drug users are infected. Crack smokers very commonly have HCV as well, as crack pipes often leave burns and tears on the lips from the heat, and they don`t feel the pain to to the anesthetic action of the crack against their lips. They then pass it to their friends to smoke and they all become infected. This is why funding for HCV programs can be hard to come by, as it`s often labelled as a "drug users only" disease, and drug addicts are essentially told "you've made your choice". Much like HIV with the stigma of being a "homosexual disease" years ago. It's good to see them actually taking it serious for a change and suggest testing. Though the "Everyone should be made aware and tested" seems to me the better idea than "Test all them damn drug using hippies! No need to tell them why!".

If I remember correctly though, the test is relatively cheap (around 10$ I believe is what I was told, but we Canadians tend to not pay attention to the cost of such things ).

Afterthought:
hmm.... I can also see them trying too do pandemic control if they have seen increases in a particularly resistant strain. First a little on resistance.
If the person you got HCV from had had say, drug A, but didn't take it as directed thus not killing the virus, HCV will actually evolve to be immune to drug A, and potentially drug B, C, and D from the same class of drugs. Now if the only drugs that existed were from A-H, and they were treated with drugs A B C D E F G, and the HCV still became resistant and did not clear, that leaves very few options (drug H only) for this persons treatment. Often this occurs from just not taking the drug at the right time, as it's a complicated regime to fit in anyone's life, let alone a drug addict who lives on the street. However, if this person passes on their `resistant strain`to another person (say that one dirty needle at the blood clinic, or that one time you wanted to do something crazy), that person can also only be treated with drug H, and has very limited chance to survive if it`s not caught early enough.

Thus, if there is a strain that is resistant to most drugs available, and this strain starts to spread, it makes the HCV problem much larger, as you now have a potentially lethal disease spreading that we have essentially few or no treatments for. Certainly seems like something they would want to keep an eye on.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
reply to post by xuenchen

 

One of the cities I lived in had a major problem with kidney dyalisis machines not being cleaned properly. This was a high risk area with lots of intravenious drug use. Quite a few people had contracted Hep C from that hospital alone. This is not an isolated incident either, it happens quite often in Canada

Some hospital workers are too lazy to clean their surgical tools which means any visit to the hospital can be risky. Just another reason to avoid hospitals if you ask me.

Used to happen even more, seem to remember mentions of the Red Cross having to track down a large batch of people who had contracted either HIV or HCV (can't remember) in the 80s. The high rates of these incidences led to many of the safe checks that you see today. The dialysis machine one is one that I've heard quite often. Though from my understanding of this area (don't know much of dialysis), it's more of a matter of it being a very hard machine to keep clean. It's not really a matter of staff failure entirely (though it usually has some part), it's more a matter of creating a highly fertile environment for organisms to breed. Mix of staff error and not having the technology to properly sterilize dialysis machines. A dialysis nurse explained this to me awhile back.

Transmission is way easier than MSM tries to make out. It is transmitted by unprotected sex, man to woman is most common but is likely the other way too. Thought now is use of a common straw while snorting coc aine (rampant in the 70s and 80s) was the way the majority of non needle users contracted the disease. Nasal membranes are easily cut by the sharp end of a straw and passed to others just as easily. Alcoholics also contract the disease through another pathway. There is possibly a huge amount of folks out there carrying the disease that don't even know it.

Hepatitis C isn't just from drug needles or straws ... I know a family of six kids in the baby boomer group who never touched needles or nose straws or whatever, had elevated liver enzymes from early childhood, and all later were diagnosed with Hepatitis C.

I think the CDC is rooting out their remaining "guinee pigs" for some weird reason.

Also, auto-immune hepatitis triggers a positive on hepatitis C tests and the treatment for Hepatitis C (completely killing the immune system for a whole year) just happens to KILL (95%) people who have autoimmune hepatitis.

Originally posted by Trexter Ziam
Hepatitis C isn't just from drug needles or straws ... I know a family of six kids in the baby boomer group who never touched needles or nose straws or whatever, had elevated liver enzymes from early childhood, and all later were diagnosed with Hepatitis C.

I think the CDC is rooting out their remaining "guinee pigs" for some weird reason.

Also, auto-immune hepatitis triggers a positive on hepatitis C tests and the treatment for Hepatitis C (completely killing the immune system for a whole year) just happens to KILL (95%) people who have autoimmune hepatitis.

I agree with you on transmission. The pathways are not completely known. However, I don't think the CDC has any political agendas. The folks I have met from the CDC are patient advocates. They are not concerned with the needs or wants of politicians.I find that many people on this site think that anybody working with any authority are corrupt. That's just not true. There are honorable people in every agency and they do honorable work. Who are you or anyone else to say otherwise? Do some work, do some research, make a difference. Do not just stand in your comfortable little life and point fingers.

a reply to: Corruption Exposed



All Boomer Generation..?


why them all-of-a-sudden ?


Perhaps it has to do with the newest, non-invasive, and benign 12 week treatment regimen

...my recent search revealed the treatment compound "EPCLUSA" by Gilead Sciences & the compound made in Ireland ...I guess they were the lowest bid contractor


SOFOSBUVIR -400mg

VELPATASVIR -100mg


with a price tag of $74,600 for 12 weeks of 1-a-day-pills

the drug, treatment, became available around July 2016,
(available: either for the public market or thru the VA, my source works in a VA hospital)





there's a lot of boomers that went through the free-love & drugs/sex/R&R era
where 90% of the young people DID INHALE, unlike (Slick-Willey) Bill Clinton who claims otherwise...
but looks like a shriveled French-fry as of late


the boomers are retiring, they have an enormous hoard of wealth ~$5 Trillion est.~

the crowd needs culling according to the globalist elites

many really wealthy boomers need scarce organ transplants with fewer doners




I am already at week 2 of the Hep. C 12 week treatment
the success rate is in the upper 90% for type 2 genome patients
(the type 1 patients no longer require the INTERFERON injections with this 3rd & newest drug regimen of 12 weeks)



my only concern is that ----

as of late, say 6-8 months... I am getting more liquids down the wrong pipe, which ultimately can lead to fluid build up in the lungs - ergo Pneumonia.
I am aware of chest congestion, coughing spells from the act of trying to reverse the saliva in the windpipe...

but when the medical doctors take their stethoscope & listen to lungs, deep breaths, everything seems
OK because nothing is said or questioned about rasping, rumbling, of the lungs I am keenly aware of as I lay-back watching TV in the 8-10PM relax-before-bed time-of-night.

"I am sure the nurses or doctors hear the congestion....but say nothing....
I have a notion that I am a client for organ harvesting... the pre-pneumonia stress could develop into fluid in the lungs, stress resulting in stroke...

i'm not saying my primary care physician nor the hep. C administrator is in charge of this conspiracy, but someone up the chain of authority is orchestrating it.... the 12 week treatment is too costly
unless another successful treatment (mine) helps to add to the list of recovered patients...hence the price of the drug compound gets re-negotiated -trump style- to a less expensive framework


just some food-for-thought

originally posted by: St Udio

I am already at week 2 of the Hep. C 12 week treatment
the success rate is in the upper 90% for type 2 genome patients
(the type 1 patients no longer require the INTERFERON injections with this 3rd & newest drug regimen of 12 weeks)

Sorry to hear you've got C. However, it's no longer the death sentence it used to be if you can afford the treatment. And now that the interferon isn't needed, you stand a chance of making it through with your health intact. Interferon is awful rough. I've got a buddy that was successfully treated with interferon but it left him with a host of other issues, like diabetes.

my only concern is that ----

as of late, say 6-8 months... I am getting more liquids down the wrong pipe, which ultimately can lead to fluid build up in the lungs - ergo Pneumonia.

It doesn't exactly work that way. It doesn't build up in your lungs, but it can easily carry bacteria into them and give you pneumonia that way, or, depending on what you inhale, you could get a chemical pneumonia from the irritation. There are some things you really don't want down the wrong pipe, inhaling certain pills can cause immediate irreversible damage. Iron supplements, potassium supplements and (IIRC) amiodarone are in that group.

If you find yourself putting food or liquids down the wrong tube a lot, you might want to get an interventional radiology swallow study to see why that's happening.

I am aware of chest congestion...

Do you have CHF? It could be fluid overload.

I recently went through months of lung related crapola, wheezing and short of breath all the time, thought it was the mycoplasma coming back but it turned out I'm allergic to cashews. Damndest thing. I don't break out, I don't swell, I don't itch. The only thing that happens is that I secrete mucus in my lungs. Now I can lie down and breathe without squeaking and popping.

I have a notion that I am a client for organ harvesting... the pre-pneumonia stress could develop into fluid in the lungs, stress resulting in stroke...

Not with hep C, you aren't. Even after you're 'cured', you will never donate anything again, from blood to corneas.

I lived and was a vol firefighter in a small town the the sierras of calif with over 50% of the people that had lived in that town that were positive for HEP C

The cause was a bad town water system that did not treat the spring water for the town and a restaurant that had run in the town by two people that did not know they had HEP C.
dont believe that because you are drinking water right out of a spring that its safe.

I just was tested last year for HEP A B and C by the VA that is testing and treating veterans for these diseases.

By the way it was the VA that found the problem with HEP C in this town when that found that most of the veterans in this town were testing positive for HEP C and did not understand why.

a reply to: ANNED

a thank-U for the info. to: Bedlam





interesting news you are relating...thanks,

makes me think back ~~~ I took parts 1 & 2 of the HEP A & B medicine, the nurse stated that many vets fell through the cracks and did not receive the 3rd part of that treatment...
I understood that a person could take the 3rd stage of treatment anytime
......... I will be holding off for now ~~~~


also I finally got to see the enzyme levels for my 'low grade HEP C'
my blood count numbers were very low, like 11,000 and a spike 2 years later to 47,000 then back down a smidgen
~I was told that the usual counts were in the +100,000 to Millions range for persons with advanced HEP C ~

I had not been blood tested for 3 years so I had a blood sample to start the 12 week regimen, to obtain a baseline count...

and I will have more blood sampling every 4 weeks of the drug regimen
(which raises one of my eyebrows) ~~ the reasoning is I have a low grade chronic condition which MaY clear the HEP C by 100%
I will do my part to help the study short of biopsy or other intrusion such as chemo/interferon, etc.

thank-you for your service to the larger community

as they say on talk-radio, you are a great American

originally posted by: xuenchen
Hepatitis C can be a serious problem.

But I wonder how many new cases would be created by mass testing ?

If anyone is thinking about getting a blood test....

Be very careful ...... there's many new cases reported every month.

This case in Las Vegas from 2008 is very alarming and can happen anytime anywhere !!!

[unsourced quote removed]



How can one be careful? I was tested 2 years ago, (clean thank god), my job requires testing of all potential diseases, are you saying the labs at your Drs may not be safe? I had never been tested for this in previous years. When I first started my job, I was initially tested for everything, and my dr lost the records, had to retest again.

Also, something that concerns me are colonoscopies. I have never liked the fact that the equipment is simply cleaned. In this day and age, can someone really not come up with disposable equipment for this procedure?

Scary.

a reply to: KTemplar


my own limit is..... nothing invasive


I decline colon scopes...biopsy...chemo as a few of the invasive things that stress your system


urinalysis & blood samples OK

I do the stool sample which are much more effective in recent years...I decline the intrusive colonoscopy which only reaches around 4 feet of that lower bowel,,, the other 25 feet of colon is never attended to except with the stool kit
besides they have a get-awake recovery room in the process, I read too many horror accounts of punctured membranes and the general practices in shove-em-in then roll-em-out rectum wards

with our level of sophistication in medical procedures, there are still 19th-20th century treatments around - not because it is the best way or method of treatment...its still around because pharmaceutical medicine is the Big Dog
~things like Shock Treatment is still practiced...despite the do-no-harm vow


never mind--- i'm rambling

originally posted by: [post=21632565]St Udio





a reply to: KTemplar


my own limit is..... nothing invasive


I decline colon scopes...biopsy...chemo as a few of the invasive things that stress your system


urinalysis & blood samples OK

I do the stool sample which are much more effective in recent years...I decline the intrusive colonoscopy which only reaches around 4 feet of that lower bowel,,, the other 25 feet of colon is never attended to except with the stool kit
besides they have a get-awake recovery room in the process, I read too many horror accounts of punctured membranes and the general practices in shove-em-in then roll-em-out rectum wards

with our level of sophistication in medical procedures, there are still 19th-20th century treatments around - not because it is the best way or method of treatment...its still around because pharmaceutical medicine is the Big Dog
~things like Shock Treatment is still practiced...despite the do-no-harm vo



never mind--- i'm rambling



Thank you, you seem very knowledgable on this subject

a reply to: Corruption Exposed

Worth the UK folk have a butchers also just in case as it has not been routinely tested and symptoms could be mistaken or I am sure they have been mistaken many times..

What is Hepatitis C? Hepatitis C, sometimes called hep C or HCV, is a virus that is carried in the blood which infects and damages the liver. The hepatitis C virus infects the cells in your liver, causing inflammation (swelling and tenderness) and fibrosis. In people with chronic (long-term) hepatitis C infection, inflammation and fibrosis continue to spread. Over time, usually many years, this can lead to cirrhosis. What are the symptoms of Hepatitis C? Hepatitis C affects people very differently – many people with it may have no symptoms at all and may never know they have the virus. There is often little or no relation between the seriousness of the symptoms and the damage to the liver. Symptoms are often hard to pin down and are frequently blamed on other problems. They can include: mild to serious tiredness (fatigue) anxiety weight loss loss of appetite inability to tolerate alcohol discomfort in the liver area (place your right hand over your lower right ribs and it will just about cover the area of your liver) problems concentrating (‘brain fog’) feeling sick flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, night sweats and headaches yellow skin or eyes, called jaundice (this is very rare and is a sign of advanced disease or acute infection). Some of the symptoms may come and go. It is not unusual for people with hepatitis C to be diagnosed as having ME or chronic fatigue syndrome. Unfortunately, the liver does not start to complain until it is seriously damaged – often only then do people realise that there is anything wrong. Different types of Hepatitis C There are different types (genotypes) of hepatitis C each with different subtypes. Knowing what type of hepatitis C virus you have is important as the types respond differently to treatment, with genotype 1 needing the longest course of treatment. The most common types in the UK, Europe and USA are 1, 2 and 3. Subtypes are labelled a, b and c. It is possible to be infected again with a different type of hepatitis C, or be infected with two types at the same time. Because each type responds to treatment differently you will be given a test to find out which type you have. How is it passed on? Hepatitis C is known as a ‘blood-borne virus’ (BBV) and can be spread by blood to blood contact. However, it is also present in other body fluids which can be a source of infection, particularly if they have become contaminated with blood. Hepatitis C is highly infectious so even a tiny amount of blood from someone who has the virus can pass on the infection if it gets into your bloodstream. This can also apply to dried blood on objects and surfaces, as the hepatitis C virus can survive for up to two weeks in dried blood. The people most at risk are those who are exposed to blood and blood products. These are: people who inject drugs, especially if they share any drug-using paraphernalia people who received blood products in the UK before September 1991 people who have received medical treatment or blood products in a country where hepatitis C is common people who were born in a country where hepatitis C is common. If you have Hepatitis C it is important that you take careful precautions so you do not to pass the virus on to anyone else.

www.britishlivertrust.org.uk...