(WI) Dean Clinic says patients may have been exposed to hepatitis, HIV

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Don't harsh my zen, Jen!
Dean Clinic says patients may have been exposed to hepatitis, HIV
As many as 2,345 Dean Clinic patients may have been exposed to the bloodborne illnesses hepatitis B and C and HIV because a diabetes nurse educator reused the handles of insulin demonstration pens and finger stick devices over a five-year period, from 2006 to 2011, clinic officials said Monday.

Both Craig Samitt, Dean's chief executive officer, and Mark Kaufman, chief medical officer, described the risk as "small" because the educator, who worked out of the Dean clinics on Stoughton Road and in Sun Prairie, did not re-use actual needles.

Even so, said Kaufman, it is possible that blood from patients contaminated the bases of the re-used demonstration pens, which are supposed to be used to show how to inject insulin and aren't intended for use on people, or the plastic handles of the finger stick devices.

"We're confident the person always changed needles between uses of the devices," said Kaufman. "But even if you're changing the needle, there is the possibility that the first person's blood could come in contact with the next person's blood."

I hope it's nowhere near as bad as it could be.
 
Short course treatment of Hep C just as effective...
:cool:
Hepatitis Patients Respond Equally Well to Short Course Treatment
September 15, 2011 - The hepatitis C virus is a leading cause of liver disease, sickening nearly 200 million people worldwide. Now, researchers report they can cure the chronic infection in a majority of cases with a shorter course of anti-viral drugs.
Nearly 200 million people -- about three percent of the world’s population -- are infected with hepatitis C, a virus that is transmitted through shared needles or through contaminated blood transfusions. While many cases of hepatitis C, or HCV, do not progress into serious illness, experts say the disease in its chronic form can lead to liver cancer, or damage called cirrhosis that keeps the liver from working properly, resulting eventually in liver failure. But Michael Fried, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, says about 75 percent of H-C-V cases can now be cured with antiviral drugs. “So that’s very encouraging. And we know that permanent eradication of hepatitis C does lead subsequently to long-term clinical improvement with less likelihood of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer,” Fried said.

Doctors consider a patient cured of hepatitis C if blood tests results are consistently negative six months after completing therapy. In a multicenter study involving 540 patients with chronic hepatitis C across the United States and in Amsterdam and Brussels, participants were initially treated with three drugs, including peginterferon and ribavirin. Three-hundred-fifty-two patients had a rapid response, and showed no genetic evidence of the virus in their blood after four weeks of treatments.

Researchers then randomly assigned these patients to an additional twelve weeks of peginterferon and ribavirin or 36 more weeks of the combination therapy. Investigators wanted to see whether patients on the shorter treatment regimen of 24 weeks did just as well as those receiving the drugs for 48 weeks, which is the standard course, according to Fried. “And what we found was the extended treatment out to 48 weeks did not provide any added benefit over the group that got 24 weeks,” said Fried. Fried says the key to success with the shorter duration treatment appears to be that patients had an initial rapid response to the drugs, something that occurred in about two-thirds of the patients in the study.

That means that a majority of hepatitis C patients, according to Fried, could potentially benefit from the shorter treatment regimen, minimizing the side effects of the treatment. “Fortunately, most of them are mild or moderate and can be managed. But anytime you can shorten a course of therapy, you are exposing the patients to less potential for side effects. In addition, the costs would be less because you would have a shorter duration of therapy for the majority of patients.” An article on the treatment of hepatitis C is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Source
 
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Short course treatment of Hep C just as effective...
:cool:
Hepatitis Patients Respond Equally Well to Short Course Treatment
September 15, 2011 - The hepatitis C virus is a leading cause of liver disease, sickening nearly 200 million people worldwide. Now, researchers report they can cure the chronic infection in a majority of cases with a shorter course of anti-viral drugs.
Nearly 200 million people -- about three percent of the world’s population -- are infected with hepatitis C, a virus that is transmitted through shared needles or through contaminated blood transfusions. While many cases of hepatitis C, or HCV, do not progress into serious illness, experts say the disease in its chronic form can lead to liver cancer, or damage called cirrhosis that keeps the liver from working properly, resulting eventually in liver failure. But Michael Fried, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, says about 75 percent of H-C-V cases can now be cured with antiviral drugs. “So that’s very encouraging. And we know that permanent eradication of hepatitis C does lead subsequently to long-term clinical improvement with less likelihood of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer,” Fried said.

Doctors consider a patient cured of hepatitis C if blood tests results are consistently negative six months after completing therapy. In a multicenter study involving 540 patients with chronic hepatitis C across the United States and in Amsterdam and Brussels, participants were initially treated with three drugs, including peginterferon and ribavirin. Three-hundred-fifty-two patients had a rapid response, and showed no genetic evidence of the virus in their blood after four weeks of treatments.

Researchers then randomly assigned these patients to an additional twelve weeks of peginterferon and ribavirin or 36 more weeks of the combination therapy. Investigators wanted to see whether patients on the shorter treatment regimen of 24 weeks did just as well as those receiving the drugs for 48 weeks, which is the standard course, according to Fried. “And what we found was the extended treatment out to 48 weeks did not provide any added benefit over the group that got 24 weeks,” said Fried. Fried says the key to success with the shorter duration treatment appears to be that patients had an initial rapid response to the drugs, something that occurred in about two-thirds of the patients in the study.

That means that a majority of hepatitis C patients, according to Fried, could potentially benefit from the shorter treatment regimen, minimizing the side effects of the treatment. “Fortunately, most of them are mild or moderate and can be managed. But anytime you can shorten a course of therapy, you are exposing the patients to less potential for side effects. In addition, the costs would be less because you would have a shorter duration of therapy for the majority of patients.” An article on the treatment of hepatitis C is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Source

/cheer!!
 
when i think about hep virus, i think of Pamela Anderson, poor celebrities.. :-( but about that nurse, she should have been more careful on what she doing.... safety always first.... they blame is on her... no objection... they are train to practice safety, but they failed... :-(
 
Workin' 'inside the box' offers promise for Hep C vaccine...
:cool:
Hepatitis C vaccine: Oxford researchers' trial 'promising'
4 January 2012 - The scientists devised a vaccine which would target the "inner engine" rather than the surface
An early clinical trial of a hepatitis C vaccine has shown "promising" results, according to researchers at Oxford University. Designing a vaccine has been difficult as the virus changes its appearance, making it hard to find something to target. Writing in Science Translational Medicine, researchers say their trial on 41 patients shows it is possible. The Hepatitis C Trust said the findings were very promising.

The virus can go unnoticed for years, but during this time it can cause considerable liver damage. In the UK, up to 500,000 people may be infected with the virus. The World Health Organization believes the global figure could be as high as 170 million people. It spreads through blood-to-blood contact such as sharing needles. While infection can be controlled with antiviral drugs, the Oxford University researchers say a vaccine "would be a major step forward".

Shifting target

They attempted to target the inner workings of the virus, rather than the variable surface markings. One of the researchers, Prof Paul Klenerman, said: "That's where the engine of the virus is, where we may be able to successfully target many of the crucial pieces of machinery." Cold viruses were modified with genetic material from the hepatitis C virus in order to prime the immune system to attack the hepatitis C virus. The aim of the Phase I trial was to determine whether the treatment was safe and to help plan future trials. Forty-one healthy patients were given the vaccine. Scientists said it produced a "very strong" immune response which lasted for at least a year and had no major side-effects. Prof Klenerman said: "The immune responses we've seen are exciting and we are beginning the next stage of trials. While we are hopeful, it could be a long road to any vaccine that protects people against hepatitis C."

The next step will be to give the vaccine to people at-risk of hepatitis C infection to see whether it protects against the virus. Charles Gore, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: "This is very promising research. "There has been rapid development in drugs to treat hepatitis C, but vaccine development has lagged behind. Yet, if we only treat existing infections, we will always be behind the curve. "We badly need to improve prevention and this is an excellent step in that direction."

BBC News - Hepatitis C vaccine: Oxford researchers' trial 'promising'
 
Granny says get yer hepatitis vaccine shot...
:cool:
Hepatitis C Kills More Americans Than HIV/AIDS
February 27, 2012 - Virus can be carried for decades before often-fatal liver disease develops
The number of deaths from the hepatitis C virus is up while deaths related to HIV/AIDS are down, according to U.S. researchers. As a result, more Americans are now dying from hepatitis C than from HIV/AIDS. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used death certificates to track fatal cases of three viral infections - hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS - over almost a decade, starting in 1999. Over nine years, HIV deaths steadily decreased as prevention programs took effect and better treatment became available. At the same time, hepatitis C cases climbed, and by 2007, more Americans were dying from that virus than from the one that causes AIDS.

Hepatitis B deaths were relatively steady during the study period, and they accounted for a fraction of the deaths caused by the other two viruses. Co-author John Ward, director of the CDC hepatitis division, says the uptick in hepatitis C deaths doesn't indicate more people are becoming infected. "The number of deaths from hepatitis C [is] increasing," he says, "because the persons infected with this virus are aging into a period of their lives when they're becoming sick with liver cirrhosis or liver cancer caused by this viral infection." Hepatitis C was discovered in 1989, and Ward says most of the three million Americans who are infected with it were exposed before then - for example through contaminated blood transfusions or by injecting illicit drugs.

A person can carry the virus for decades without any symptoms, until major, and often fatal, liver disease develops. Ward says the successes of the fight against HIV/AIDS could serve as a roadmap for battling hepatitis C. That includes more testing of people at risk, especially those born between 1945 and 1965, and developing a robust treatment network to reach patients with the latest generation of effective medicines. "And when we say effective, we're really talking about eliminating the viral infection - essentially, a cure of the infection, not lifelong or ongoing chronic therapy, but a course of treatment that for 70 percent of persons can lead to elimination of the virus." He says the effort could save 80-120,000 lives over the coming years.

Source
 
This is the second time acute hepatitis has been linked to energy drink consumption...
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Energy Drinks Linked To Hepatitis
November 2, 2016 • Most of us have consumed energy drinks at one point or another, either because of a looming deadline or during a fun night out. Although energy drinks are often perceived as harmless, a new case report links the beverages to liver damage, after a previously healthy man developed hepatitis from consuming too many.
In the United States, most energy drinks are consumed by young males between 18-34 years of age. Almost one third of teenagers between 12-17 years old consume energy drinks regularly, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Between 2007-2011, the number of energy drink-related emergency department visits in the U.S. doubled. Main concerns regard the combined use of energy drinks with alcohol, which leads to excessive binge drinking. As for the contents of an energy drink, it is believed that caffeine and sugar pose the greatest threat to consumers' health.

According to a new case report, however, there may be something in energy drinks that can cause liver damage. The report details a 50-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital for acute hepatitis. The patient had reportedly consumed four to five energy drinks per day for more than 3 weeks. This is a very rare occurrence; there is only one other case, in which a 22-year-old woman developed acute hepatitis from consuming energy drinks in excess.

two-blue-energy-drink-cans.jpg

Two blue energy drink cans​

Man consumed four to five energy drinks daily for 3 weeks

This latest case - reported by Dr. Jennifer Nicole Harb of the University of Florida College of Medicine and colleagues - was published in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The man was previously healthy. He reported no changes in his diet or alcohol consumption, nor was he taking any prescription or over-the-counter medicine. He had also not consumed any illicit drugs and had no history of liver disease in his family. However, for 3 weeks leading up to his hospitalization, he had started consuming energy drinks in order to keep up with his heavy workload as a construction worker. After the 3-week period, he started developing symptoms such as general malaise, anorexia, acute abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. The patient became alarmed when these symptoms were accompanied by jaundice and dark urine.

Excess niacin to blame for acute hepatitis

Upon examination, it was revealed that the number of enzymes called transaminases was elevated, which indicates liver damage. A liver biopsy revealed acute hepatitis, and doctors also found evidence of chronic hepatitis C infection. "Though the patient was found to have HCV [hepatitis C virus] infection, we did not think HCV was responsible for his acute hepatitis," the doctors mention in the report. The doctors go on to explain that acute hepatitis was most likely induced by the excessive intake of vitamin B3, also known as niacin. The patient consumed around 160-200 milligrams of niacin per day, which is twice the recommended daily dose.

Although these levels of niacin are not supposed to cause toxicity, they are similar to those reported in the only one other case of energy drink-associated hepatitis. There, the woman had consumed 300 milligrams of niacin daily, which was, at the time, the lowest reported dose to cause niacin toxicity. In the case of the new patient, symptoms were cleared by the third day of hospitalization, following careful observation and treatment. He discontinued the use of energy drinks and was advised to avoid any similar products that contain vitamin B3 in the future.

Dietary supplements and liver toxicity
 

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