Why should ALL boomers be tested? I can see it if they have risk factors.

[raccoon]

Otherwise, boys and girls, who benefits?

Two other things: How much does the test cost? Second, if you don't have insurance and get tested and you have it, good
luck getting private medical insurance after that.


(Reuters) - All baby boomers should be tested for the hepatitis C virus, U.S. health officials said on Thursday, citing studies suggesting more than 2 million Americans born between 1945 and 1965 may be infected with the liver-destroying virus.

"Everyone age 47 to 67 who hasn't already been tested for hepatitis C should be tested once," Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC's director, said on a telephone press briefing. "The sooner you know the more you can protect your liver and your life..."

The agency had previously recommended testing only for people with certain known risk factors for the infection

The field has attracted broad interest with two new hepatitis C drugs, Incivek from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc and Merck & Co's Victrelis, reaching the U.S. market in the past year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/16/us-hepatitis-cdc-idUSBRE87F0WX20120816

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Are they assuming that all boomers screwed around alot? I only had one partner and that is the one

I married.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. Anyone that has ever been through a mass inoculation where the gun type injectors were ...

used is at risk. They were the equivalent of needle sharing.

[spin]

6. I have been though several of those. Intersting post and something for me ...

to think about.

[southernyankeebelle]

9. I didn't think about that. I don't every remember going through that procedure.

[Ganja Ninja]

12. The military used them at induction centers.

Eventually they figured out that every time they used it a little back spray came off and landed on the nozzle and contaminated it.

[southernyankeebelle]

13. Yes, I remember that but didn't they also use this in schools?

[Ganja Ninja]

14. They used them in the 50's, 60's, & 70s.

I'm sure they were used outside of the military in schools for things like polio and small pox.

[southernyankeebelle]

16. You know I think your right. When I was a kid in the early 50s I remember having to

go through a whole bunch of shots because my family was going overseas to the Philippines. Then we went to Germany from there and when we came back we had to get a whole bunch of shots to come home to the states. Now you don't have to do that anymore. Thank god. All those shots really hurt and I cried. LOL Of course back then we went by ship to the Philppines and military plane to Germany. Times really changed.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Just fyi here are a few of the 'morally upright' risk factors for your approval

Received a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992
Received clotting factor concentrates before 1987
Received hemodialysis treatments for a long period of time
Were born to a woman with a hepatitis C infection

I recently lost a family member to liver disease as a result of such an infection. And in that case, the entire Democratic Party lost a hard core activist and organizer, the first person who said these words to me : 'Barack Obama'.

[southernyankeebelle]

11. I am sorry for your lose. All I was trying to say it would be a waste of money if you never

had more then one partner. I am not passing judgement on life styles of people. You bring up good points I didn't think of before. Again am sorry for your lose of a loved family member.

[AngryOldDem]

3. I think the bold type in your post explains it all.

Just one more payday for Big Pharma.

[cthulu2016]

5. Because more than 1% may be affected (which is a substantial number)

Two million out out of those born 1945-1965 is well over 1%.

What percentage of colonsoscopies reveal cancer? What percentage of Mammograms?

As for the interest of Pharma... yes, they do have an interest in detecting cases if they have drugs to sell to treat those cases.

So what? My dentist has an interest in detecting my cavities but that doesn't mean it is against my interest to get them filled.

Is your argument that it is preferable that cases not be detected and not be treated?

[raccoon]

7. I think the risk is exaggerated. nt

[cthulu2016]

8. That's a separate issue

I was going by the article you posted, and within the context of the article such testing makes sense.

If you have reason to believe the number affected is much smaller than 2 million then that's a valid consideration.

It is a scientific question--the reliability of the studies and their conclusions. If they are unreliable then they are unreliable.

But the only way we will probably ever know is wide-scale testing.

[Howler]

10. Well At 53 years old and belonging to the Hep,C generation.

I 'm glad I got tested because I had it. I took to the interferon/ riboviron treatment for six months in 2000 and have come back clean every test to this day.If I hadn't taken the test and medicine I would be walking around playing chicken with my liver.
When I was a young woman (and Immortal) there were alot of drugs around. We all experimented where I live.....er EVERYBODY I grew up with anyways. Thats ALOT of people.That would be the class of "77" LOL! Just sayin. When I was diagnosed they had a 40% success rate with the treatment now I think its up past 60%. I refuse to bow to the stigma that some folks would like to pin on this illness.We were adventurous, Young, and ready for ANYTHING. Our generation didnt have the stigma or taboo's about drug use that others have had.

[haele]

15. Everyone who's gone through the military and some grade school innoculations should be tested.

I graduated HS in 1977; I remember they were using the air-gun innoculators in Seattle elementry schools for booster innoculations in the early 1970's because it was "less scary" to kids; there was less of a chance of screwing up dosages or "missing" - causing additional bruises and pain than with the big old needles as the nurses tried to keep the needles inserted long enough to deliver the vaccine sub-cutanious instead of hitting a vein, bone, or muscle while the child was squriming around.

The chances of getting hep-C from the air guns before the CDC started really concentrating on blood-borne pathogen contagion potential in the late 70's needs to be acknowledged.