Military Veterans

[brandej]

Are there any Hep C positive veterans out there who received vacinations with the air injector gun while on active duty in the early 1970's or late 1960's?  The veteran population from that time period has a high prevelence of Hepatitis C and some believe that the air injector method of giving vacinations used at that time might be the cause.  I was in the Marine Corps from 70 to 74 and remember being vacinated with this method where we were simply lined up and injected one by one by stepping forward to the injection station.  The air injector gun shot a high pressure pre-measured dose through the skin on the upper arm.  The end of the air gun that touched the arm could not have been sterile as I remember seeing bleeding arms on some after the shot was given.  This has recently been added to the list of risk factors for Hep C.  Comments??

[FlGuy]

"between the wounded triage treatments, (no testing of blood supply beyond typing)  rampant use of heroin, and intimate contact with the infected populace, there's more than one way that Nam era vets could have gotten HCV. "

You got only one out of three right in your comment

[CoWriter]

Transmission methods specific to military service include the lack of standard precautions, dental and medical procedures with improperly sterilized equipment, reusable needles/syringes, JET GUN INJECTIONS, use of multi dose vials and contaminated blood based vaccines, sharing personal care items like razors and combat exposure.

There are now studies that show that jet guns got contaminated with blood and were able to transmit infection....

http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v5/n7/full/nrd2076.html


There are also studies done by the CDC that showed that jetguns got contaminated with Hep B and C.....

http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/meetings/dec2003/Contents/ThursdayPM/Weniger.pdf

Nobody wore gloves and the jetguns were not wiped between recruits as per manyfacturer instructions.  Jet guns were not recalled by the FDA until 1998.


1 in 10 US Veterans are infected with Hep C, a rate 5  times greater than the 1.8% infection rate of the general population.

A study conducted in 1999, by the Veterans Administration involving 26,000 veterans showed that up to 10% of all veterans in the VHA system tested positive for hepatitis C.

Of the total number of persons who were hepatitis C antibody positive, and reported an era of service, 62.7% were noted to be from the Vietnam era. The second most frequent group is listed as post-Vietnam at 18.2%, followed by 4.8% Korean conflict, 4.3% post-Korean conflict, 4.2% from WWII, and 2.7% Persian Gulf era veterans.

http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/schedule106/apr00/4-13ben/groselle.htm



Hepatitis C is considered "service connected" but when a claim is submitted, it is up to the person to prove that they got vaccines using a jet gun.

HCVets is fighting to change it to "PRESUMED service connected", so that Hep C will be automatically considered service related and Vets won't have to prove it.  


HCVets.com has a certified VA officer who can help you submit your claim to the VA and they have all the info on jet guns to help you back up your claim.

[CoWriter]

"rampant use of heroin, and intimate contact with the infected populace"

I'm used to you making stupid claims and never backing up anything you say, but this one takes the cake.  

Do you realize that Vets got infected by jetgun vaccines DURING BOOT CAMP and not by "rampant use of heroin" as the VA would like us to believe?

Did you know that during World War II, our government used an unlicensed yellow fever vaccine that was contaminated with Hepatitis B and a study done later by the VA
showed that 330,000 of our soldiers had been infected?

http://darwin.nap.edu/books/0309045487/html/10.html

And nobody told those soldiers....but people like YOU accused them of drug use!


Did you know that the FDA, the medical director from the VA and the WHO have all admitted that jet guns got contaminated by blood and Hep C transmission was possible?

IN BOOT CAMP!!!!  And not only were they given vaccines but also immune globulin with reusable syringes as part of experiments!

So how dare you say it was from "rampant use of heroin and intimate contact" when obviously you know nothing about Veterans.

Go to HCVets and tell them I sent you.  They'll be happy to educate you.

[FlGuy]

Those were the two I was referring to, but maybe for slightly different reasons.  Contray to popular belief, the soldiers in Vietnam did not sit around and shoot up heroin when we were shooting other stuff.  The purity of the herion did not allow IV use, it was smoked or snorted.  Even snorting would have taken your head off. Not to say there wasn't widespread use, just that heroin methods were not condusive to hcv.  As to the the 'intimate contact', those incidents were no more risky than anywhere else in the world.  I'd be really irritated if it wasn't for the fact that I also appreciate the stroll down memory lane.

[apache1]

Yup, Marine, remember the air jet injections and blood drops on my arm, like it was yesterday.

Hey FlGuy...1 out of 3 aint that bad....lmao,

apache1

[meakea]

Thank you all for your service to our country!  I am sorry that Hep C is yet another issue that plagues our heros.

One of my sons returned home from his 2nd tour in Iraq this summer.  During his medical out-processing, he told the doctors that he had a painful lump in his testicle ever since he was involved in an explosion back in January.  Military doc sent him for an ultrasound and then told him he was fine and signed off on him.  He sent him home and told him to take pain pills for the pain and sleeping pills for his insomnia and not to worry about the lump.  My son was wise enough to see his civilian doc the day after his arrival home who sent him emergently to a Urologist.  The Urologist took one look at the ultrasound that was done by the military and told him he had cancer and he had surgical removal the following day and follow up radiation treatments.

During all this treatment, the insurance was a nightmare because he had been out-processed by the military.  Denial, denial, denial everywhere.  It took months of calls, e-mails, faxes, etc. to get him covered as he should have been.  In some ways, the military has improved so very much and, in others, it's just as raw as it was many years ago.