Aa
Boomers May Be Last Boom of Hepatitis C?
Saw this and wondered about its accuracy. Any opinons?
It emphasizes IVDU as the principal boomer source (which may be true but seems too blanket a statement to account for many of us) and second, the rates in other countries are very high and may stimulate a rise here, due to increased travel, immigration, etc. HCV does not politely stop at geographical borders.
Boomers May Be Last Boom of Hepatitis C
August 2, 2010
A new study of U.S. blood donors shows a "strikingly lower prevalence" of hepatitis C virus (HCV) compared with 1992-93, according to lead researcher Dr. Edward Murphy of the University of California-San Francisco.
HCV is a blood-borne infection that is primarily contracted from dirty syringes, but a small number of cases are sexually transmitted or passed from mother to infant during childbirth. The body can clear hepatitis C, though infections become chronic 75 percent to 85 percent of the time. CDC estimates that 1 percent to 5 percent of people with chronic HCV eventually die of cirrhosis or liver cancer.
In the early 1990s, about a half a percent of blood donors were positive for HCV antibodies, indicating either a chronic infection or past infection that cleared. From 2006 to 2007, the study analyzed samples from nearly 960,000 blood donors at six U.S. blood banks, finding less than a tenth of a percent were positive for HCV antibodies.
Murphy said the decrease probably reflects an overall decline of hepatitis C, especially among younger Americans. The baby boom generation, which had higher rates of injection drug use than subsequent generations, has more carriers of the infection and is at higher risk for HCV-related liver disease.
Two other factors for higher risk of hepatitis C among blood donors were found. Among women, the odds of having HCV antibodies increased with the number of children they had given birth to -- from 1 infection in 3,300 among women who had never given birth to 1 in 1,000 among women with five or more children.
Obese adults were less likely than their normal-weight peers to have HCV antibodies. And among those with antibodies, obese persons were less likely to have the genetic material that signals the ongoing presence of HCV.
The study, "Hepatitis C Virus Prevalence and Clearance Among U.S. Blood Donors, 2006-2007: Associations with Birth Cohort, Multiple Pregnancies, and Body Mass Index," was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (2010;202:576-584).
Excerpted from:
Chicago Tribune
07.26.2010; Amy Norton, Reuters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update. You can find this article online by typing this address into your Web browser:
http://www.thebody.com/content/news/art57936.html
"HCV is a blood-borne infection that is primarily contracted from dirty syringes, but a small number of cases are sexually transmitted or passed from mother to infant during childbirth."
This makes it sound like these are the only ways people can get hep c, and we all know how rare sexual transmission and mother to child transmission is. I think somebody just pulled sentences from different reports and put it out there like they were an authority.
What about the part that says the more kids a woman has, the greater the chance of HCV?Wonder where that came from.
Diane
This makes it sound like these are the only ways people can get hep c, and we all know how rare sexual transmission and mother to child transmission is. I think somebody just pulled sentences from different reports and put it out there like they were an authority.
What about the part that says the more kids a woman has, the greater the chance of HCV?Wonder where that came from.
Diane
I saw that earlier and I wasn't surprised that the incidence of HCV is decreasing. I didn't really analyze it because it sounded believable. I think the risks of disease transmission are much more top of the mind than they were in the sixties and seventies.
I am not sure I understand the implications of obese people being less likely to have HCV antibodies than normal weight people and those obese people with antibodies being less likely to have ongoing HCV infection. I don't know what to make of that. I could speculate but I don't want to risk offending anyone with my baseless speculation. All I will say is that some of the observations about obese people sound counter-intuitive to me.
Mike
I am not sure I understand the implications of obese people being less likely to have HCV antibodies than normal weight people and those obese people with antibodies being less likely to have ongoing HCV infection. I don't know what to make of that. I could speculate but I don't want to risk offending anyone with my baseless speculation. All I will say is that some of the observations about obese people sound counter-intuitive to me.
Mike
While it's definitely less likely to get it via a transfusion these days.....
Personally I thought that kids were really still into drugs - places like Staten Island in NY and Long Island have tremendous problems with heroin these days........anyway
What is this about does this mean that obese people have 'less sex and drugs' in thier lives according to the article?
"Obese adults were less likely than their normal-weight peers to have HCV antibodies......" I've never heard this fact before in all the years I"ve been in here.
And regarding the mom's vs. child ratio what are they implying that the more children you have the more partners you have had so the better chance you have the disease?
Personally I thought that kids were really still into drugs - places like Staten Island in NY and Long Island have tremendous problems with heroin these days........anyway
What is this about does this mean that obese people have 'less sex and drugs' in thier lives according to the article?
"Obese adults were less likely than their normal-weight peers to have HCV antibodies......" I've never heard this fact before in all the years I"ve been in here.
And regarding the mom's vs. child ratio what are they implying that the more children you have the more partners you have had so the better chance you have the disease?
It sounds like the fat protects a person somehow. That sure didn't work for me. They don't give a source for that info either.
I like the part where they say,
In the early 1990s, about a half a percent of blood donors were positive for HCV antibodies, indicating either a chronic infection or past infection that cleared. From 2006 to 2007, the study analyzed samples from nearly 960,000 blood donors at six U.S. blood banks, finding less than a tenth of a percent were positive for HCV antibodies.
How do they know that? I understood they started testing blood in 1992. And anyone who tested positive for antibodies is no longer donating blood.
I've looked around on veterans sites because my husband does not have the disease although he has many more risk factors than I do. He was badly wounded and had 6 units of blood tranfused, he received gamma globulin before going over seas, he had the air gun vaccinations, etc, etc,. Now some are writing there that VA patients are not always being told they have Hep C. So we are going to insist on another test.
It upsets me that in articles of this type the patients are always implicated and never the medical professions. Of course there are less people showing up to donate now with the disease, they test for it now and people are asked to never donate again if antibodies show up.
When I was in my twenties, living and working in Santa Barbara, there never seemed to be enough money for the whole week. I used to sell plasma from time to time to make ends meet. Now I wonder how clean that procedure was. I've had a gamma globulin shot in the eighties because of a hep B scare. That is a blood product. I'm no angel, but it just really bugs me that statistically they would be willing to mark down for sure that snorting coke is what caused this for me while ignoring everything else!!! And many, many veterans were infected by injections they were ordered to take. You never hear about that in these articles.
And by the reasoning in this article I should not have hep C. I am a chubby middle aged woman who has never had a child.
One more random thought. I have a young friend that has O negative blood. For each of her two children she has had a gamma globulin shot. Each time they make her sign a paper stating she will not sue if she develops a blood borne disease.
In the early 1990s, about a half a percent of blood donors were positive for HCV antibodies, indicating either a chronic infection or past infection that cleared. From 2006 to 2007, the study analyzed samples from nearly 960,000 blood donors at six U.S. blood banks, finding less than a tenth of a percent were positive for HCV antibodies.
How do they know that? I understood they started testing blood in 1992. And anyone who tested positive for antibodies is no longer donating blood.
I've looked around on veterans sites because my husband does not have the disease although he has many more risk factors than I do. He was badly wounded and had 6 units of blood tranfused, he received gamma globulin before going over seas, he had the air gun vaccinations, etc, etc,. Now some are writing there that VA patients are not always being told they have Hep C. So we are going to insist on another test.
It upsets me that in articles of this type the patients are always implicated and never the medical professions. Of course there are less people showing up to donate now with the disease, they test for it now and people are asked to never donate again if antibodies show up.
When I was in my twenties, living and working in Santa Barbara, there never seemed to be enough money for the whole week. I used to sell plasma from time to time to make ends meet. Now I wonder how clean that procedure was. I've had a gamma globulin shot in the eighties because of a hep B scare. That is a blood product. I'm no angel, but it just really bugs me that statistically they would be willing to mark down for sure that snorting coke is what caused this for me while ignoring everything else!!! And many, many veterans were infected by injections they were ordered to take. You never hear about that in these articles.
And by the reasoning in this article I should not have hep C. I am a chubby middle aged woman who has never had a child.
One more random thought. I have a young friend that has O negative blood. For each of her two children she has had a gamma globulin shot. Each time they make her sign a paper stating she will not sue if she develops a blood borne disease.
Summing up this odd article:
How to avoid getting Hep C:
1. Get fat
2. Don't have any children.
Of course, all of us baby boomers got Hep C from IVDU, yup...none of us got it from blood transfusions or unproperly sterilized dental equipment, military mess-ups, etc. Nope...just IVDU and sex.
How to avoid getting Hep C:
1. Get fat
2. Don't have any children.
Of course, all of us baby boomers got Hep C from IVDU, yup...none of us got it from blood transfusions or unproperly sterilized dental equipment, military mess-ups, etc. Nope...just IVDU and sex.
"How to avoid getting Hep C:"
1. Get fat
2. Don't have any children.
LMAO.....sounds reasonable to me.
1. Get fat
2. Don't have any children.
LMAO.....sounds reasonable to me.
For a split second I was rather angered when I read the article but then I realized it's just too stupid to be mad at...so I laugh. :)
I think this is very short sighted. The doctor is in the US at a one of the best hospitals in the country and his view in my opinion in distorted.
Perhaps the incidence of HCV will lessen in the US, but I don't think that's the case in africa and asia where it is getting worse. I read that they discovered a new genotype in africa recently.
Living in the US and europe really cushions us from the experience many in the world are dealing with. Every day I read something about how many people died from disasters and war I remember that.
- Dave
Perhaps the incidence of HCV will lessen in the US, but I don't think that's the case in africa and asia where it is getting worse. I read that they discovered a new genotype in africa recently.
Living in the US and europe really cushions us from the experience many in the world are dealing with. Every day I read something about how many people died from disasters and war I remember that.
- Dave
It seemed an example of marginally informed reporter who distilled information from a study. The *take away* often varies from reporter to reporter.
To post that IVDU is the main cause of the infection followed by sexual transmission or vertical transmission seems to perpetuate the notion that the disease is caused by illicit drug use or sex. (vertical transmission may be between1-5% and heterosexual no trauma sex in the 0-2% range)
The finding that the more children provides a greater the chance of transmission is likely due to the occasional need for transfusions given during birth. Many of the women I met who were infected got their transfusion (**and** HCV infection) at the hospital when giving birth.
Up to about 30% of those with HCV don't know how they got it. In all likelihood we acquired it from medical care at a hospital, in the military or from poor sterilization practices back in the past at such places as barbershop, beauty salon, dentist office; but the article doesn't mention that. Even contact sports present a risk. How did the reporter miss that?
Personally, I'd rather read the study than the article. It comes off as written by a person who is deriving conclusions from one HCV study; not many.
Finally; the obese issue....do they mean lower viral load? They don't say so.
What I suppose from reading a few studies is that generally, the obese have a poorer chance of clearing the virus, a greater risk of damage and greater risk of other extra-hepatic issues and co-morbidities, including enhanced risk of diabetes.
From reading the article though, I would probably conclude that I should just start eating more MacDonalds super sized meals. ; )
I'd have to dig it up but there was a study, an old one that ranked all the risks and gave them a statistical ranking. You see...... even a *visit* to the hospital is accompanied by a risk, surgery, yet another risk. The risk of transmission is a bit more complex than the information of article provides us. One could conclude that if one didn't acquire their HCV though vertical transmission, then one probably got it from sex or drugs.
Articles such as this help perpetuate ignorance and confusion about HCV transmission.
best,
Willy
(from a guy who has never been in the military, given birth, done IVDU, been tattooed, and have never had my nails done; so I guess that it *must* have been the sex. : ) )
To post that IVDU is the main cause of the infection followed by sexual transmission or vertical transmission seems to perpetuate the notion that the disease is caused by illicit drug use or sex. (vertical transmission may be between1-5% and heterosexual no trauma sex in the 0-2% range)
The finding that the more children provides a greater the chance of transmission is likely due to the occasional need for transfusions given during birth. Many of the women I met who were infected got their transfusion (**and** HCV infection) at the hospital when giving birth.
Up to about 30% of those with HCV don't know how they got it. In all likelihood we acquired it from medical care at a hospital, in the military or from poor sterilization practices back in the past at such places as barbershop, beauty salon, dentist office; but the article doesn't mention that. Even contact sports present a risk. How did the reporter miss that?
Personally, I'd rather read the study than the article. It comes off as written by a person who is deriving conclusions from one HCV study; not many.
Finally; the obese issue....do they mean lower viral load? They don't say so.
What I suppose from reading a few studies is that generally, the obese have a poorer chance of clearing the virus, a greater risk of damage and greater risk of other extra-hepatic issues and co-morbidities, including enhanced risk of diabetes.
From reading the article though, I would probably conclude that I should just start eating more MacDonalds super sized meals. ; )
I'd have to dig it up but there was a study, an old one that ranked all the risks and gave them a statistical ranking. You see...... even a *visit* to the hospital is accompanied by a risk, surgery, yet another risk. The risk of transmission is a bit more complex than the information of article provides us. One could conclude that if one didn't acquire their HCV though vertical transmission, then one probably got it from sex or drugs.
Articles such as this help perpetuate ignorance and confusion about HCV transmission.
best,
Willy
(from a guy who has never been in the military, given birth, done IVDU, been tattooed, and have never had my nails done; so I guess that it *must* have been the sex. : ) )
Many who have hep c caught it in the 70s. We didn't know it existed. The public is much aware especially since HIV. So yes the population in the US will shrink, but not in other countries where people are less educated about virus transmission.
i disagree , plenty of young kids still getting caught out mainly through ivdu, hcv does not have the high profile that hiv has and many people have still never heard of hcv , i think it could go up even
Yeah, I felt the same as Mea (hi, Mea!), groaning that a small minority (including us) may have ironed out the complexities of HCV and then boom, the powerful fifth estate (the Chicago Tribune) messages the public about boomers in what seems a lop-sided way, pigeon-holing HCV, based on info provided by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hoped they'd do better than that but it provides us a reality check about what's circulating in the media, not to mention the surprising conclusions of the study concerning BMI and having kids.
Interesting hypothesis, Willy, about increased hospitalizations with increased deliveries.
There was another reporter who used to irk some of us - can't recall her name now - but it looks like we should keep our eye on this Amy Norton. Kind of wish Willy would write her.
Susan
Hoped they'd do better than that but it provides us a reality check about what's circulating in the media, not to mention the surprising conclusions of the study concerning BMI and having kids.
Interesting hypothesis, Willy, about increased hospitalizations with increased deliveries.
There was another reporter who used to irk some of us - can't recall her name now - but it looks like we should keep our eye on this Amy Norton. Kind of wish Willy would write her.
Susan
i disagree , plenty of young kids still getting caught out mainly through ivdu,"
I agree with James maybe because I am from a big metropolitan area with the biggest cities in the world only hours apart, but to me there are plenty of kids getting hooked still today and they don't know as much about hcv as hiv....but still people think 'it will never happen to me' until it does. Certainly I never thought it would happen to me.
"To post that IVDU is the main cause of the infection followed by sexual transmission or vertical transmission seems to perpetuate the notion that the disease is caused by illicit drug use or sex. "
heck Pam Anderson still says she won't treat because her hair will fall out and because she keeps an eye on her viral load and it's fine........with misinformation coming from 'reliable, knowledgable' sources like that one can easily see why the public is so ignorant about the disease. Plus I'd hardly think she's considered virginal so I can see why they would think sex is the way you get it coming from her. Let alone articles like this..........
I agree with James maybe because I am from a big metropolitan area with the biggest cities in the world only hours apart, but to me there are plenty of kids getting hooked still today and they don't know as much about hcv as hiv....but still people think 'it will never happen to me' until it does. Certainly I never thought it would happen to me.
"To post that IVDU is the main cause of the infection followed by sexual transmission or vertical transmission seems to perpetuate the notion that the disease is caused by illicit drug use or sex. "
heck Pam Anderson still says she won't treat because her hair will fall out and because she keeps an eye on her viral load and it's fine........with misinformation coming from 'reliable, knowledgable' sources like that one can easily see why the public is so ignorant about the disease. Plus I'd hardly think she's considered virginal so I can see why they would think sex is the way you get it coming from her. Let alone articles like this..........
I've actually been searching around for articles similar to this myself. It's interesting to read the, CDC estimates that 1 percent to 5 percent of people with chronic HCV eventually die of cirrhosis or liver cancer. That seems low to me, although the risk is still there. I also read that the risks of HCC are quite low too..
Cory...
Sometimes I feel like I must have won the reverse of a monetary lottery by getting Hep C. By reverse I mean not a GOOD thing. I had no risk factors for Hep C other than a remote blood transfusion 55 years ago. It's one of the reasons I still buy lotto tickets. :)
Sometimes I feel like I must have won the reverse of a monetary lottery by getting Hep C. By reverse I mean not a GOOD thing. I had no risk factors for Hep C other than a remote blood transfusion 55 years ago. It's one of the reasons I still buy lotto tickets. :)
I am 20 or so miles from Pittsburgh and don't know much about the city schools but around here ( and I can think of 4 or 5 school districts) the drug use is abundant and not just pot or coke. More like herion, oxycontin and whaterer else
A friend has a certified K-9 drug dog and goes into the schools and some of the stuff he tells me is scary.
Denise
A friend has a certified K-9 drug dog and goes into the schools and some of the stuff he tells me is scary.
Denise
You know, kids will be kids and as long as there are drugs around they are going to continue to do them. Just say no didn't really work as much as people wish it did. Ask Sarah Palin how well preaching to your kids works? Hells bells it's like the new generation thinking they invented some new better kind of sex than was happening years ago........they are always smarter than the adults in their mind and anyone who thinks their kid is perfect is deleriously deluded unfortunately.
Blood donor stats always lag the reality of epidemiology. I realize HCV and Vets is a touchy subject, but a recent article seemed to imply that as many as 15% of our troops are addicted to Rx pain meds which means there is no accurate way to gauge illicit opiate use in the Middle East and Afghanistan at this time. We may soon be looking at a second wave increase similar to the late 60s and early 70s.
i am sure some on this site, will think badly of me for admitting to IV drug use from my past. i came from a upper midclass family, went to catholic school, never in my wildest dreams would i have thought of myself as being a junkie, but there i was in the late seventies, injecting drugs. it was a short period of time before i realized, i could not live like this. fast forward twentysome years latter and my eldest son was involved in heroin use. lucky for him he is now drug free and is negative for HCV. they have needle exchange programs, unlike my day when we would share needles, so i co believe that we may be the last large group of HCV infected all i can say sins of the parents are visited upon the children. i hope it end with my son and myself
I know that no one will think badly of you for admitting to IV drug use from the past...there's nothing to think badly of which is sort of the point of frustration with studies that continue to point fingers at drugs and sex as being the root of all of our troubles.
On a side note, desrt you mention the Rx pain med use amongst our military so it made me think of this: One of my sons has been in Iraq twice. The 2nd time he was with a bomb clearing squad that would ride out in front of the convoys searching for IEDs, etc. Unfortunately, he was involved in multiple explosions but, fortunately, was never severely injured. He did, however, get thrown around like rag doll enough that he had pain in multiple places and he developed a sleep disorder (which I think is very common with deployed military members). He came home from that 2nd deployment with a large bag full of meds that he never took. Vicodin, all varieties of sleeping pills, you name it, he had it. He told me that every time he went to medical to talk about his problems they shoved an RX at him and pushed him out the door without even listening to him. So he'd get the RX filled and throw it in the bag. He tried several of the sleeping pills without success and ended up throwing them in the bag.
One of his main complaints was groin pain accompanied by a lump and he was again given scads pain pills. After multiple attempts to get medical attention at the Iraq base for his pain and lump without success, he gave up. When he got home he made an immediate appointment with his PCP here and his PCP took one look at his lump and sent him to a Urologist the same day. The Urologist put him in the hospital the next day and removed the lump...it was cancer. So, seems to me that the current military practice is to treat everything with pain pills. No wonder the addition rate is up there.
On a side note, desrt you mention the Rx pain med use amongst our military so it made me think of this: One of my sons has been in Iraq twice. The 2nd time he was with a bomb clearing squad that would ride out in front of the convoys searching for IEDs, etc. Unfortunately, he was involved in multiple explosions but, fortunately, was never severely injured. He did, however, get thrown around like rag doll enough that he had pain in multiple places and he developed a sleep disorder (which I think is very common with deployed military members). He came home from that 2nd deployment with a large bag full of meds that he never took. Vicodin, all varieties of sleeping pills, you name it, he had it. He told me that every time he went to medical to talk about his problems they shoved an RX at him and pushed him out the door without even listening to him. So he'd get the RX filled and throw it in the bag. He tried several of the sleeping pills without success and ended up throwing them in the bag.
One of his main complaints was groin pain accompanied by a lump and he was again given scads pain pills. After multiple attempts to get medical attention at the Iraq base for his pain and lump without success, he gave up. When he got home he made an immediate appointment with his PCP here and his PCP took one look at his lump and sent him to a Urologist the same day. The Urologist put him in the hospital the next day and removed the lump...it was cancer. So, seems to me that the current military practice is to treat everything with pain pills. No wonder the addition rate is up there.
Dont worry Stalion you do understand it is the most common method of infection - there are lots of addicts in here.......me not the least of them.
(And I came from a good Catholic family in a upper class neighborhood too, but that didn't mean I wasn't screwed up anyway ;)
And yes unfortunately to the sins of the parents.........gah well mom always said I'd get back what I gave right?
(And I came from a good Catholic family in a upper class neighborhood too, but that didn't mean I wasn't screwed up anyway ;)
And yes unfortunately to the sins of the parents.........gah well mom always said I'd get back what I gave right?
Mary Ann,
Nobody on this site will think badly of you for such a reason but if someone does, send him my way and I'll look after it. :)
Still, most people in India and China do not get HCV from IVDU and I think the record is unclear as to how most people got it in NA, since there was no awareness of it in the mainstream.
For all you know, you got it at the dentist's when you were a kid and then, after doing IVDU, mistakenly assumed it was the needle-sharing when it's possible it could have been the earlier unsterilized dental equipment. Look at me - I got it in the 70's and didn't do IVDU but did go to a dentist who didn't sterilize between patients. And if you're in your fifties and had the measles, you may have got a gamma globulin shot for it, which was also a route of transmission.
Glad to hear about your son and want to now write you on the hair dye thread, so give me a minute....
Susan
Nobody on this site will think badly of you for such a reason but if someone does, send him my way and I'll look after it. :)
Still, most people in India and China do not get HCV from IVDU and I think the record is unclear as to how most people got it in NA, since there was no awareness of it in the mainstream.
For all you know, you got it at the dentist's when you were a kid and then, after doing IVDU, mistakenly assumed it was the needle-sharing when it's possible it could have been the earlier unsterilized dental equipment. Look at me - I got it in the 70's and didn't do IVDU but did go to a dentist who didn't sterilize between patients. And if you're in your fifties and had the measles, you may have got a gamma globulin shot for it, which was also a route of transmission.
Glad to hear about your son and want to now write you on the hair dye thread, so give me a minute....
Susan
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