- Hello Jeff... Maybe those of us who have NO risk factors
for HCV will not be scruitinized and judged by the health care professionals
responsible for our treatment so often now.
-
- For all of those who judged HCV patients and who believed/suggested
that we were drug users, had promiscuous sex, etc., here is proof that
HCV is also being given to healthy Americans by their own health system.
-
- ProMED-mail is a program of the
- International Society for Infectious Diseases
- http://www.isid.org
-
- Date: Thu 17 Oct 2002
- From: Pablo Nart <p.nart@virgin.net>
- Source: Columbus Telegram com, Wed 16 Oct 2002 [edited]
-
- Nebraska: Possible Cluster of Cases with Uncommon Hepatitis
C Virus
-
- By Tracy Buffington
- Columbus Telegram
- 10-16-2
-
- http://www.columbustelegram.com/articles/2002/10/16/news/news3.txt
-
- Nebraska Department of Health officials are asking more
than 600 patients of a Fremont oncology doctor to be tested for a strain
of hepatitis C virus, which can damage the liver. Letters were sent to
612 people from the Fremont area who received treatment at [this physician's]
clinic between 1 Mar 2000 and 31 Dec 2001. "We're recommending that
persons within that window period who sought care in [this doctor's] practice
come back and have a screening test performed," said Dr. Tom Safranek,
the state epidemiologist with the Nebraska Department of Health.
-
- Patients who received letters are asked to call (402)
941-7020 to set up an appointment to be tested. A special clinic has been
set up to handle the tests. Those receiving letters also can call that
number to ask questions. "It's a voluntary thing," Safranek said.
"We're recommending it. We're also recommending that it be done through
this clinic just because it's a central point where everybody is getting
a standard test. And we're making some counseling and question answers
available for persons who have questions and want to discuss this."
-
- State officials first learned of a possible cluster of
an uncommon strain of hepatitis C virus about 3 weeks ago. Hepatitis C
virus causes an infection of the liver. In most patients, this infection
causes no symptoms. Some patients experience symptoms such as fatigue,
loss of appetite, and a yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. The
virus can cause the liver to fail, but that usually takes 20 years or more,
Safranek said. "We had a cluster of people with no identifiable risk
factors who had contracted hepatitis C virus genotype 3A," Safranek
said. "The one thing they had in common was they had been cared for
in the same medical practice."
-
- Safranek said 10 individuals have been identified with
"clinic acquired" hepatitis C virus infection. Though 5-10 more
people might have acquired hepatitis C virus in that fashion, a review
of the records has not been completed. "We have identified an individual
who was cared for at the hematology oncology clinic, who was hepatitis
C virus-positive prior to coming to the clinic, and a person who had known
risk factors for hepatitis C. And it looks to us like that might be the
way it got introduced into the clinic," Safranek said. Officials are
trying to pinpoint how the disease was passed from one person to the next.
Safranek said the investigation will look for anything the infected patients
had in common such as types of chemotherapy and other procedures.
-
- "Those who test positive will be evaluated on a
case-by-case basis; it is a disease that is very slowly progressive,"
Safranek said. "Many, many people who have this infection might not
be aware they are infected. It's what I would call a silent infection.
Many people will live a perfectly normal life without ever being aware
they have a Hepatitis C infection."
-
- _____
-
- ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org
-
- Further information on this incident would be welcomed.
Hepatitis C virus genotype 3A is not uncommon in Europe and North America,
suggesting introduction of the virus from a local source rather than from
abroad.
-
- The report does not provide any clues as to the route
of transmission of the virus from patient to patient within the clinic.
Unfortunately lapses in procedures still occur.
-
- The following example is taken from an AP report in
the Herald Sun (Oklahoma), 10 Oct 2002 [edited] <http://www.heraldsun.com/healthmed/34-275438.html>.
-
- "A hepatitis C outbreak that has infected 52 people
in Oklahoma has led to a national warning to nurse anesthetists against
reusing needles in intravenous tubes. A nurse anesthetist in Oklahoma City,
told health officials he reused needles and syringes up to 25 times a day
to inject pain medication through intravenous tubes at a pain management
clinic in Norman and 2 surgical centers in Oklahoma City. The nurse anesthetist
is under investigation by the state Department of Health and the Oklahoma
Board of Nursing. Health officials have sent letters to 1220 patients treated
by the nurse, telling them to get tested for hepatitis C, and 52 of the
patients have tested positive since late August. Last year, 19 patients
of a Brooklyn, N.Y., clinic contracted hepatitis C when an anesthesiologist
reused needles and a vial of medication. The American Association of Nurse
Anesthetists has sent 33 000 letters to hospital administrators, nurse
anesthetists, and nursing students nationwide, citing the Oklahoma outbreak
and telling them not to reuse needles. Experts say some health practitioners
may not be aware that reusing needles is dangerous because the needles
are inserted into tubes rather than under the skin. "After discussion
with infection control experts, we have concerns there may be a widespread
misunderstanding by health care practitioners of the dangers associated
with the reuse of needles and syringes," the letter said. Dr. Elliot
Greene, associate professor of anesthesiology at Albany Medical College
in Albany, N.Y., said studies done in the 1990s documented that health
care professionals sometimes reused needles when injecting drugs into intravenous
tubes." - Mods.CP/MPP]
-
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/index.shtml
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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