This Supplement was recently discussed on the blog in an entry entitled;
"Warning Miracle Mineral Solution: ITS BACK"
by di-ve.com - editorial@di-ve.com
Local News -- 04 January 2011 -- 14:55CEST
The Public Health Regulation Department has issued a health warning on an oral mineral supplement available for sale online, stating that the product was dangerous and led to adverse effects.
The product in question is named Miracle Mineral Solution, available for sale in Europe and over the internet. Another related product, called MMS2, comes in the form of capsules.
The product’s website includes a number of grandiose claims, stating that “the answer to AIDS, hepatitis A,B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancer and many more of mankind's worse diseases has been found.”
But these claims are scientifically unsubstantiated; and worse still, a number of adverse effects have been reported.
It contains a 28 per cent sodium chlorite solution which is equivalent to industrial-strength bleach, and if taken as directed, could cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea potentially leading to dehydration and reduced blood pressure, the PHRD said.
The effects could be worse if the solution is directed less than instructed, possibly causing damage to the intestines and to the blood cells and potentially resulted in kidney failure.
The department said that 1 death associated with the use of the product had been reported by the media, although it could not be officially confirmed.
It thus advised the public not to procure such a product, or to throw away any they had purchased. People who have consumed the product and feel unwell should consult their doctor.
“The department once again reminds the public that the quality, safety and efficacy of products bought over the internet cannot be always be guaranteed and advises the public not to engage in such an activity where medicinal products are concerned,” the department concluded.
http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsId=79992
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Hepatitis In The News:36m suffer from HBV "Bishnu"/ HAV warning issued/
In the News
Hepatitis A warning issued after Christmas communion on Long Island
New York (CNN) -- Hundreds of people might have been exposed to hepatitis A while receiving communion on Christmas Day, Long Island officials said Monday.
The Nassau County Department of Health is offering vaccines to those who attended two services at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park in Long Island, New York, according to Nassau County Department of Health spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain.
Individuals might be at risk if they received communion during the 10:30 am and noon Masses, according to a statement from the county health department.
"We know that there's a potential that (exposure) could have happened," she said. "We think the risk is relatively low."
At least one member of the clergy involved in the communion process was infected with the disease, Laurain said.
There have been no additional reports of illness.
Some 1,300 people were in attendance between the two church services, she added.
Symptoms of the disease include the onset of fever, fatigue, poor appetite, nausea, stomach pain, dark-colored urine and jaundice, according the statement. The disease is rarely fatal and most people recover within a few weeks without complications, it said.
Individuals exposed to the disease should receive vaccination within two weeks of exposure, the statement said.
Source
.
Stara Zagora is nearing epidemic of hepatitis A
03 January 2011 22:22 FOCUS
03 January 2011 22:22 FOCUS
News Agency Bulgaria
Stara Zagora / Haskovo. The town of Stara Zagora is nearing epidemic of hepatitis A. Only in the last few days in the county hospital in Stara Zagora were adopted 150 people, bTV announced. Only today 15 new patients with jaundice were hospitalized. The source of infection is not clear yet. Doctors in Stara Zagora do not remember such a boom of hepatitis for years.
36m Indians suffer from Hepatitis-B: Bishnu
January 4th, 2011
The number of Indians getting Hepatitis-B and succumbing to the disease has increased with the country ranking second in the list of countries with the most Hepatitis-B affected patients, said Prof. Bishnu Pada Chatterjee, emeritus professor at West Bengal University of Technology.
Speaking to this newspaper on Monday during the Indian Science Congress, Prof Chatterjee said that about two billion people have been infected with the disease worldwide of which 36 million are from India. “Hepatitis B and C infections are major global problems. Of the two billion people infected worldwide, more than 350 million are chronic carriers of the virus. About five to 12 lakh people die due to Hepatitis every year. The majority of people chronically infected with viral hepatitis are living in Asia and the Western Pacific region,” he added.
Prof. Chatterjee said even though the government had asked all hospitals to test the blood of donors before transfusing, it was not being followed. “Persons transfusing blood in hospitals do not have adequate awareness about using sterilized syringes and blood is not being tested for HIV or hepatitis. These are the reasons for hepatitis spreading to others and for more people succumbing to the disease,” he added.
He pointed out that hepatitis-related morbidity and mortality could be greatly reduced by a dual approach of integrating Hepatitis-B and C vaccines into all national immunization programmes, besides effectively treating the infection.
Stara Zagora / Haskovo. The town of Stara Zagora is nearing epidemic of hepatitis A. Only in the last few days in the county hospital in Stara Zagora were adopted 150 people, bTV announced. Only today 15 new patients with jaundice were hospitalized. The source of infection is not clear yet. Doctors in Stara Zagora do not remember such a boom of hepatitis for years.
36m Indians suffer from Hepatitis-B: Bishnu
January 4th, 2011
The number of Indians getting Hepatitis-B and succumbing to the disease has increased with the country ranking second in the list of countries with the most Hepatitis-B affected patients, said Prof. Bishnu Pada Chatterjee, emeritus professor at West Bengal University of Technology.
Speaking to this newspaper on Monday during the Indian Science Congress, Prof Chatterjee said that about two billion people have been infected with the disease worldwide of which 36 million are from India. “Hepatitis B and C infections are major global problems. Of the two billion people infected worldwide, more than 350 million are chronic carriers of the virus. About five to 12 lakh people die due to Hepatitis every year. The majority of people chronically infected with viral hepatitis are living in Asia and the Western Pacific region,” he added.
Prof. Chatterjee said even though the government had asked all hospitals to test the blood of donors before transfusing, it was not being followed. “Persons transfusing blood in hospitals do not have adequate awareness about using sterilized syringes and blood is not being tested for HIV or hepatitis. These are the reasons for hepatitis spreading to others and for more people succumbing to the disease,” he added.
He pointed out that hepatitis-related morbidity and mortality could be greatly reduced by a dual approach of integrating Hepatitis-B and C vaccines into all national immunization programmes, besides effectively treating the infection.
.
Worth Your Time:
The huffington post has an interesting article written by Frances Kissling which covers the story of two sisters who were jailed for life in 1994 for armed burglary. They both had their sentences suspended in December by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour with one sisters release contingent on donating her kidney to "The Other Sister Who Was Released". On this blog a few days ago was an entry on Organ Harvesting In China . If you read that entry or not you will most likely agree with what the author Ms. Kisslings wrote in her piece:
"While donating a kidney is extremely safe when donors are healthy and a rigorous evaluation has taken place, it does have a small risk of death. Requiring a prisoner to agree to take this risk in return for parole violates international transplant standards and human rights. The idea that prisoners are able to consent to risky medical treatment in return for benefits is one that ethicists have long questioned. It's one step removed from the Chinese government practice of selling the organs of executed prisoners and kidneys from live Falun Gong and others in jail".
Read The Full Article Here
NATAP posted this today :
EU drugs agency launches new guidelines for HIV testing in injecting drug users - pdf of guidelines attached
- (01/03/11)
No resistance to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate detected after up to 144 weeks of therapy in patients monoinfected with chronic hepatitis B virus - published pdf attached
- (01/03/11)
From Medical News Today:
Terrence Higgins Trust Launches New Support Groups For Gay Men In Brighton & Hove, UK
03 January 2011Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) is to launch three support groups in the New Year all aimed at gay men living with HIV in Brighton & Hove. Two groups; the Lounge (for men who have been living with HIV for a year or more) and...
[read article]
Fraunhofer MEVIS And The University Of Bern Cooperate With The Leading Liver Center In Shanghai
02 January 2011In a research partnership between the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS in Bremen and the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research at the University of Bern, this navigation technique will be...
[read article]
If you're new to this blog check out HCV Advocate Newsletter, January 2011
Other Health News
From Medpage:
Depression Plus Diabetes Raises CV Death RiskThe coexistence of depression and diabetes confers a high mortality risk on middle-age women, particularly for death from cardiovascular disease, a prospective study showed.
The huffington post has an interesting article written by Frances Kissling which covers the story of two sisters who were jailed for life in 1994 for armed burglary. They both had their sentences suspended in December by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour with one sisters release contingent on donating her kidney to "The Other Sister Who Was Released". On this blog a few days ago was an entry on Organ Harvesting In China . If you read that entry or not you will most likely agree with what the author Ms. Kisslings wrote in her piece:
"While donating a kidney is extremely safe when donors are healthy and a rigorous evaluation has taken place, it does have a small risk of death. Requiring a prisoner to agree to take this risk in return for parole violates international transplant standards and human rights. The idea that prisoners are able to consent to risky medical treatment in return for benefits is one that ethicists have long questioned. It's one step removed from the Chinese government practice of selling the organs of executed prisoners and kidneys from live Falun Gong and others in jail".
Read The Full Article Here
NATAP posted this today :
EU drugs agency launches new guidelines for HIV testing in injecting drug users - pdf of guidelines attached
- (01/03/11)
No resistance to tenofovir disoproxil fumarate detected after up to 144 weeks of therapy in patients monoinfected with chronic hepatitis B virus - published pdf attached
- (01/03/11)
From Medical News Today:
Terrence Higgins Trust Launches New Support Groups For Gay Men In Brighton & Hove, UK
03 January 2011Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) is to launch three support groups in the New Year all aimed at gay men living with HIV in Brighton & Hove. Two groups; the Lounge (for men who have been living with HIV for a year or more) and...
[read article]
Fraunhofer MEVIS And The University Of Bern Cooperate With The Leading Liver Center In Shanghai
02 January 2011In a research partnership between the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS in Bremen and the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research at the University of Bern, this navigation technique will be...
[read article]
If you're new to this blog check out HCV Advocate Newsletter, January 2011
Other Health News
From Medpage:
Depression Plus Diabetes Raises CV Death RiskThe coexistence of depression and diabetes confers a high mortality risk on middle-age women, particularly for death from cardiovascular disease, a prospective study showed.
Posttraumatic stress disorder -- but not a history of concussion -- strongly predicted postconcussive symptoms and poorer psychosocial outcomes in soldiers returning from a long deployment to Iraq, researchers found.
Recalled:
Albuterol Inhalation Solution Recalled Due to Mislabeling
Albuterol Inhalation Solution Recalled Due to Mislabeling
Robert Lowes
Authors and Disclosures
January 3, 2011 — Ritedose is voluntarily recalling 0.083% albuterol sulfate inhalation solution in 3-mL single-use dose vials because some vials are embossed with incorrect concentration information, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today.
The product package makes the mislabeling even more confusing. The single-use dose vials are wrapped in protective foil inside a shelf carton. Single-use vials with an actual concentration of 2.5 mg/3 mL are incorrectly embossed with a concentration of 0.5 mg/3 mL. The correct concentration of 2.5 mg/3 mL, however, appears on the protective foil and shelf carton.
Clinicians who read the incorrect concentration embossed on the vials may mistakenly adjust the volume of the product upward, resulting in an administered dose that is 5 times the recommended one. This error is more likely in hospital settings, where the inhalation-solution vials often are not accompanied by the rest of the packaging.
Significant overdosing could result in signs and symptoms of albuterol toxicity, which includes tremors, dizziness, nervousness, headaches, seizures, angina, high blood pressure, low potassium levels, and rapid heart rates up to 200 beats per minute. Potential health effects range from temporary and medically reversible to life-threatening and fatal.
Albuterol sulfate inhalation solution is indicated for the treatment of acute asthma exacerbations and exercise-induced asthma in adults and children.
Patients should return the albuterol inhalation solution to the medical practice, pharmacy, or hospital where they obtained it.
More information about today’s announcement, including lot numbers of the product under recall, is available on the FDA Web site.
Clinicians and patients also can contact Ritedose by telephone at 1-803-935-3995 or by email at recall@ritedose.com.
To report adverse events related to 0.083% albuterol sulfate inhalation solution, contact MedWatch, the FDA's safety information and adverse event reporting program, by telephone at 1-800-FDA-1088, by fax at 1-800-FDA-0178, online at http://www.fda.gov/medwatch, or by mail to MedWatch, FDA, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20852-9787.
Journalist
Robert Lowes
Freelance writer, St. Louis, MissouriDisclosure: Robert L. Lowes has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Posted: 01/03/2011
Journalist
Robert Lowes
Freelance writer, St. Louis, MissouriDisclosure: Robert L. Lowes has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Posted: 01/03/2011
.
Pharmaceutical News
A decline in U.S. drug approvals, spurred by an “increased conservatism” on safety issues by the Food and Drug Administration
Merck, of Whitehouse Station, N.J., made progress in 2010 launching new products and advancing its drug pipeline, said Ron Rogers, a spokesman. Products to be evaluated this year include boceprevir, a hepatitis C treatment that five analysts project, on average, will have sales of $524.4 million in 2014.
Organ recipient shares good word about Gift of Life
ANN ARBOR: Organ recipient shares good word about Gift of Life
By Jodie Mason, A2 Journal
Dr. Michael Hagan still remembers the first time he met his donor family. In fact, he says it’s one of the single most important experiences of his entire life. And with Dec. 21, 2010 marking the 11 year anniversary of his transplant, Dr. Hagan is still thankful to be alive.
“In my first life, I was an emergency physician,” said Hagan. “I was very active in the emergency department, I was very involved in it and I became certified in emergency medicine. I was an instructor for EMT’s and paramedics and I was an Advanced Cardiac Life Support instructor and a professor of emergency medicine at Michigan State. I had a wonderful career in emergency medicine.”
Roughly ten years into his career, Dr. Hagan contracted viral Hepatitis B from a patient. He was off work for six months, returned to work part-time and relapsed.
“They measure the severity of the Hepatitis by what are called liver enzymes. Normal is in the range of 40 to 80. When I had my first episode, my enzymes were 300 and 500, and when I had my relapse; my enzymes were within 1000 to 2000.”
Dr. Hagan was sent to The University of Michigan Hospital, where he was told that if he were to have a third relapse, he would most likely die.
“I was told that I would have to retire from emergency medicine,” said Hagan. “And that was the end of my first life. When you go to medical school, you learn medicine, you don’t learn anything else, so it was a devastating blow for me.”
After returning to college, he obtained a master’s degree in health service administration and began working as the vice president of medical quality at St. Joseph Mercy Health System, where he worked for ten years.
“My new career was very nice. But after ten years, we had a tragedy in our family, and my 20-year-old son who died in a tragic accident. It was a very devastating time for me, and within a matter of months I had a third relapse, and this time it was worse than it was before.”
He was informed that he had End Stage Liver Disease, and that he had less than 18 months to live. His only option was to be put on the transplant list and wait.
“Time is very critical with a transplant, and I was told I needed to show up at U-M within one hour of whenever they called me. At this time I lived in Bloomfield, so it was at least an hour and a half from my home. But they told me to go home, pack a suitcase and wait for a phone call.”
During the waiting period for his liver transplant, Dr. Hagan began to show severe signs of liver damage, including yellowing the skin, nausea and water retention. Nearly 24 months after being put on the donor list, the phone rang with news about a transplant.
“I woke up the next day in intensive care and I could feel that I was a different person. I felt warm and I felt that I had vibrancy to me that I didn’t have before.”
Following his transplant surgery, Dr. Hagan was informed that if he had not received his new liver when he did, he would not have lived more than a week.
“When I say that I am thankful to be here, I really mean that. Every day when I wake up I say ‘thank you’ to God and I say ‘thank you’ to my donor family.”
Dr. Hagan became curious about his new liver and the donor. But with confidentiality laws in place to protect donors and recipients, he had nearly resigned to the idea that he would never know.
“The only thing they could tell me was that my donor was 21 and that the liver was healthy,” said Hagan.
Upon returning home from the hospital, Dr. Hagan contacted a newspaper reporter who had written an article previously about his son’s death.
“She knew I was on the transplant list, so I was telling her about my transplant. And I happened to mention it was on Dec. 21 that I received my liver transplant and she starts screaming on the phone and I said ‘what’s the matter.’”
His friend had recently written a series of articles about a young woman named Shemika Rogers in Lansing who was shot and in critical condition on a ventilator for five days while the family was making arrangements for organ donation.
“She thought that might be my donor. At that point, it was ‘maybe yes, maybe no,’ because we do ship organs all across the country, but it was a clue. But there were seven absolute total coincidences that happened following my surgery, and that was the first.”
Six months later, he was reading an article in the Detroit Free Press about white-collar crime, and in the article, it cited a case in Lansing where a woman named Shemika was tracked by a gang using Nextel cell phones.
“At the end of the article, it said that the murder trial began on May 1. So I called up the Ingham County Prosecutor’s office and I found out about the trial.”
On the first day of the trial, Dr. Hagan entered the courtroom and sat in the very back row.
“The prosecutor saw me walk in, and walked all the way down the aisle and said to me ‘why are you here?’ At the time, I made something up on the spot and I told him it was because I was a retired guy who watches trials. But on the second day, he came up to me and said ‘I don’t believe you.’
“So we went into a small room and I told him my story, about how I had contracted Hepatitis from a patient and I said ‘on Dec. 21, I received a liver transplant’ and the prosecutor said ‘stop, I know why you’re here.’”
The trial lasted six weeks, with a month delay for sentencing. Dr. Hagan sat with Shemika’s family every day during the trial, despite the fact that at that time, they were unaware of who he was.
Following the trial, the prosecutor encouraged Dr. Hagan to write a letter to Shemika’s family, and shared his motivation during the entire trial.
“Every day, when he came to court and shook my hand, he said he realized he was prosecuting a murder trial where part of the murder victim was still alive, in the courtroom, watching him to make sure he did a good job. He said he had never been motivated like that in his 25-year career as a prosecutor.”
From this motivation, the prosecutor encouraged Hagan to write a letter to Shemika’s family explaining who he was and why he had attended the trial.
On the sentencing day of the trial, the Lansing State Police were on hand to escort the entire family away for safety. The prosecutor approached Dr. Hagan and said that he had given the letter to the family.
“The letter simply read ‘To Shemika’s Family, my name is Dr. Michael Hagan and I think we’re related.’ I went on to tell them my story and said that on Dec. 21 I received a liver transplant and I believe that Shemika was my donor…They read the letter and recognized who I was. And up until this point I had no proof this was my donor family and even if it was, not every family is willing to make that emotional connection.
“So if that family had chosen not to make that connection and to walk out the door, I would have to accept it. But instead, they started screaming, 12 people come running down the hall and they gave me a great big hug, right in front of the judge, and jury and everything.”
In 2009, Michigan organ donation resulted in 864 transplants, and in 2010, there were 694. As of Dec. 1, 2010, 2,449 Michigan patients were awaiting a kidney transplant, and 319 were waiting for a liver. A total of 2,993 people are currently awaiting organ donations.
“If you take my age and Shemika’s age and average them, I’m only 37. And that’s how I feel. It’s not like I was sick and I got better. I am a whole new person. I am in my third life now, which is the best that I could ever imagine. I work here at Gift of Life Michigan, I work in organ donation everyday and it’s absolutely incredible to be able to do this.”
Outside the Gift of Life offices hang quilts, consisting of patches designed by the families of donors. One patch belongs to Shemika.
“Every morning, when I come through that door, I’m inspired by her.”
For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit www.giftoflifemichigan.org and click on the donor tab.
For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit http://www.giftoflifemichigan.org/ and click on the donor tab.
http://www.heritage.com
By Jodie Mason, A2 Journal
Dr. Michael Hagan still remembers the first time he met his donor family. In fact, he says it’s one of the single most important experiences of his entire life. And with Dec. 21, 2010 marking the 11 year anniversary of his transplant, Dr. Hagan is still thankful to be alive.
“In my first life, I was an emergency physician,” said Hagan. “I was very active in the emergency department, I was very involved in it and I became certified in emergency medicine. I was an instructor for EMT’s and paramedics and I was an Advanced Cardiac Life Support instructor and a professor of emergency medicine at Michigan State. I had a wonderful career in emergency medicine.”
Roughly ten years into his career, Dr. Hagan contracted viral Hepatitis B from a patient. He was off work for six months, returned to work part-time and relapsed.
“They measure the severity of the Hepatitis by what are called liver enzymes. Normal is in the range of 40 to 80. When I had my first episode, my enzymes were 300 and 500, and when I had my relapse; my enzymes were within 1000 to 2000.”
Dr. Hagan was sent to The University of Michigan Hospital, where he was told that if he were to have a third relapse, he would most likely die.
“I was told that I would have to retire from emergency medicine,” said Hagan. “And that was the end of my first life. When you go to medical school, you learn medicine, you don’t learn anything else, so it was a devastating blow for me.”
After returning to college, he obtained a master’s degree in health service administration and began working as the vice president of medical quality at St. Joseph Mercy Health System, where he worked for ten years.
“My new career was very nice. But after ten years, we had a tragedy in our family, and my 20-year-old son who died in a tragic accident. It was a very devastating time for me, and within a matter of months I had a third relapse, and this time it was worse than it was before.”
He was informed that he had End Stage Liver Disease, and that he had less than 18 months to live. His only option was to be put on the transplant list and wait.
“Time is very critical with a transplant, and I was told I needed to show up at U-M within one hour of whenever they called me. At this time I lived in Bloomfield, so it was at least an hour and a half from my home. But they told me to go home, pack a suitcase and wait for a phone call.”
During the waiting period for his liver transplant, Dr. Hagan began to show severe signs of liver damage, including yellowing the skin, nausea and water retention. Nearly 24 months after being put on the donor list, the phone rang with news about a transplant.
“I woke up the next day in intensive care and I could feel that I was a different person. I felt warm and I felt that I had vibrancy to me that I didn’t have before.”
Following his transplant surgery, Dr. Hagan was informed that if he had not received his new liver when he did, he would not have lived more than a week.
“When I say that I am thankful to be here, I really mean that. Every day when I wake up I say ‘thank you’ to God and I say ‘thank you’ to my donor family.”
Dr. Hagan became curious about his new liver and the donor. But with confidentiality laws in place to protect donors and recipients, he had nearly resigned to the idea that he would never know.
“The only thing they could tell me was that my donor was 21 and that the liver was healthy,” said Hagan.
Upon returning home from the hospital, Dr. Hagan contacted a newspaper reporter who had written an article previously about his son’s death.
“She knew I was on the transplant list, so I was telling her about my transplant. And I happened to mention it was on Dec. 21 that I received my liver transplant and she starts screaming on the phone and I said ‘what’s the matter.’”
His friend had recently written a series of articles about a young woman named Shemika Rogers in Lansing who was shot and in critical condition on a ventilator for five days while the family was making arrangements for organ donation.
“She thought that might be my donor. At that point, it was ‘maybe yes, maybe no,’ because we do ship organs all across the country, but it was a clue. But there were seven absolute total coincidences that happened following my surgery, and that was the first.”
Six months later, he was reading an article in the Detroit Free Press about white-collar crime, and in the article, it cited a case in Lansing where a woman named Shemika was tracked by a gang using Nextel cell phones.
“At the end of the article, it said that the murder trial began on May 1. So I called up the Ingham County Prosecutor’s office and I found out about the trial.”
On the first day of the trial, Dr. Hagan entered the courtroom and sat in the very back row.
“The prosecutor saw me walk in, and walked all the way down the aisle and said to me ‘why are you here?’ At the time, I made something up on the spot and I told him it was because I was a retired guy who watches trials. But on the second day, he came up to me and said ‘I don’t believe you.’
“So we went into a small room and I told him my story, about how I had contracted Hepatitis from a patient and I said ‘on Dec. 21, I received a liver transplant’ and the prosecutor said ‘stop, I know why you’re here.’”
The trial lasted six weeks, with a month delay for sentencing. Dr. Hagan sat with Shemika’s family every day during the trial, despite the fact that at that time, they were unaware of who he was.
Following the trial, the prosecutor encouraged Dr. Hagan to write a letter to Shemika’s family, and shared his motivation during the entire trial.
“Every day, when he came to court and shook my hand, he said he realized he was prosecuting a murder trial where part of the murder victim was still alive, in the courtroom, watching him to make sure he did a good job. He said he had never been motivated like that in his 25-year career as a prosecutor.”
From this motivation, the prosecutor encouraged Hagan to write a letter to Shemika’s family explaining who he was and why he had attended the trial.
On the sentencing day of the trial, the Lansing State Police were on hand to escort the entire family away for safety. The prosecutor approached Dr. Hagan and said that he had given the letter to the family.
“The letter simply read ‘To Shemika’s Family, my name is Dr. Michael Hagan and I think we’re related.’ I went on to tell them my story and said that on Dec. 21 I received a liver transplant and I believe that Shemika was my donor…They read the letter and recognized who I was. And up until this point I had no proof this was my donor family and even if it was, not every family is willing to make that emotional connection.
“So if that family had chosen not to make that connection and to walk out the door, I would have to accept it. But instead, they started screaming, 12 people come running down the hall and they gave me a great big hug, right in front of the judge, and jury and everything.”
In 2009, Michigan organ donation resulted in 864 transplants, and in 2010, there were 694. As of Dec. 1, 2010, 2,449 Michigan patients were awaiting a kidney transplant, and 319 were waiting for a liver. A total of 2,993 people are currently awaiting organ donations.
“If you take my age and Shemika’s age and average them, I’m only 37. And that’s how I feel. It’s not like I was sick and I got better. I am a whole new person. I am in my third life now, which is the best that I could ever imagine. I work here at Gift of Life Michigan, I work in organ donation everyday and it’s absolutely incredible to be able to do this.”
Outside the Gift of Life offices hang quilts, consisting of patches designed by the families of donors. One patch belongs to Shemika.
“Every morning, when I come through that door, I’m inspired by her.”
For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit www.giftoflifemichigan.org and click on the donor tab.
For more information on becoming an organ donor, visit http://www.giftoflifemichigan.org/ and click on the donor tab.
http://www.heritage.com
Lower Recurrence Rate for HCC Treated With Resection
Lower Recurrence Rate for HCC Treated With Resection Than Radiofrequency Ablation
By: DENISE NAPOLI,
Internal Medicine News Digital Network-->
01/03/11
Although percutaneous radiofrequency ablation and surgical resection for small hepatocellular carcinomas have similar survival rates, ablation patients have a higher rate of cancer recurrence, compared with surgical resection patients, reported Dr. Hung-Hsu Hung and colleagues in the January issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Dr. Hung, of Taipei (Taiwan) Veterans General Hospital and the National Yang-Ming University, also in Taipei, looked at 419 consecutive patients who underwent radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or surgical resection (SR) at the hospital in 2002-2007. All patients had no more than three small (5 cm or less) liver tumors without extrahepatic metastasis (Clin. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 2011 January [doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2010.08.018]).
In all, 190 patients underwent RFA and the remaining 229 underwent SR to treat their liver cancer. Patients who chose SR were on average slightly younger (60 years vs. 67 years; P less than .001). This was expected, given the invasive nature of the surgery.
Additionally, the authors found that there was a higher proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis B in the SR group than in the RFA group (59.8% vs. 46.3%; P = .004), whereas chronic hepatitis C was more common in the RFA group (44.7% vs. 26.6%; P less than .001).
This was also an expected finding, because in chronic HBV infection, hepatocellular carcinomas tend to occur at a younger age, the researchers wrote.
Regarding survival, 83 patients had died after a median follow-up of more than 42 months. "Among the 190 patients [who] underwent RFA, 41 (21.6%) died during the follow-up period; 97 (51.1%) were alive with regular visits" until Jan. 31, 2010, and the remaining 52 (27.4%) were lost to follow-up sometime before 2010.
In comparison, there were 42 deaths (18.3%) among the SR group, with 120 patients known to be alive through Jan. 31, 2010 (52.4%), and the remaining 67 patients (29.3%) lost to follow-up.
"The cumulative overall survival rates at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years were 97.3%, 92.2%, 88.2%, and 79.3% in the SR group and 96.6%, 86.7%, 77.3%, and 67.4% in the RFA group, respectively," a significant difference in univariate analysis (P less than 0.009), wrote the authors.
However, after controlling for the older age and comorbidities of the RFA group in multivariate analysis, the authors found that RFA was not an independent risk factor associated with poor survival.
Next, the authors looked at factors associated with cancer recurrence. Overall, 244 patients had experienced tumor recurrence at a median of 14.5 months following RFA or SR.
"The cumulative recurrence rates at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years were 17.4%, 30.5%, 43.9%, and 59.1% in the SR group and 37.4%, 54.1%, 71.0%, and 79.5% in the RFA group, respectively (P less than .001)," they reported.
As with survival, that translated to a significantly higher univariate risk of recurrence among RFA patients (hazard ratio, 2.05; 95% confidence interval, 1.58-2.65). When assessed in a multivariate analysis, RFA was still significantly associated with cancer recurrence (HR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.48-2.57; P less than .001).
The finding of equal survival but greater recurrence among RFA patients persisted in a third propensity analysis, which employed nearest-neighbor one-to-one matching of 84 patients in each group in terms of age, sex, tumor size, tumor number, platelet counts, hepatitis status, and several other parameters.
The only subgroup for which RFA was equal to SR in terms of both survival and tumor recurrence was patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma less than 2 cm in size, known as "very early small HCC (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage 0)" tumors.
According to the authors, their study "highlights the importance of close surveillance after local ablation therapy." Additionally, the authors concluded that RFA may be a good alternative to surgical resection for BCLC stage 0 HCC, although prospective study is needed.
Dr. Hung and colleagues disclosed no conflicts of interest related to this study.
http://www.internalmedicinenews.com
By: DENISE NAPOLI,
Internal Medicine News Digital Network-->
01/03/11
Although percutaneous radiofrequency ablation and surgical resection for small hepatocellular carcinomas have similar survival rates, ablation patients have a higher rate of cancer recurrence, compared with surgical resection patients, reported Dr. Hung-Hsu Hung and colleagues in the January issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Dr. Hung, of Taipei (Taiwan) Veterans General Hospital and the National Yang-Ming University, also in Taipei, looked at 419 consecutive patients who underwent radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or surgical resection (SR) at the hospital in 2002-2007. All patients had no more than three small (5 cm or less) liver tumors without extrahepatic metastasis (Clin. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 2011 January [doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2010.08.018]).
In all, 190 patients underwent RFA and the remaining 229 underwent SR to treat their liver cancer. Patients who chose SR were on average slightly younger (60 years vs. 67 years; P less than .001). This was expected, given the invasive nature of the surgery.
Additionally, the authors found that there was a higher proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis B in the SR group than in the RFA group (59.8% vs. 46.3%; P = .004), whereas chronic hepatitis C was more common in the RFA group (44.7% vs. 26.6%; P less than .001).
This was also an expected finding, because in chronic HBV infection, hepatocellular carcinomas tend to occur at a younger age, the researchers wrote.
Regarding survival, 83 patients had died after a median follow-up of more than 42 months. "Among the 190 patients [who] underwent RFA, 41 (21.6%) died during the follow-up period; 97 (51.1%) were alive with regular visits" until Jan. 31, 2010, and the remaining 52 (27.4%) were lost to follow-up sometime before 2010.
In comparison, there were 42 deaths (18.3%) among the SR group, with 120 patients known to be alive through Jan. 31, 2010 (52.4%), and the remaining 67 patients (29.3%) lost to follow-up.
"The cumulative overall survival rates at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years were 97.3%, 92.2%, 88.2%, and 79.3% in the SR group and 96.6%, 86.7%, 77.3%, and 67.4% in the RFA group, respectively," a significant difference in univariate analysis (P less than 0.009), wrote the authors.
However, after controlling for the older age and comorbidities of the RFA group in multivariate analysis, the authors found that RFA was not an independent risk factor associated with poor survival.
Next, the authors looked at factors associated with cancer recurrence. Overall, 244 patients had experienced tumor recurrence at a median of 14.5 months following RFA or SR.
"The cumulative recurrence rates at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years were 17.4%, 30.5%, 43.9%, and 59.1% in the SR group and 37.4%, 54.1%, 71.0%, and 79.5% in the RFA group, respectively (P less than .001)," they reported.
As with survival, that translated to a significantly higher univariate risk of recurrence among RFA patients (hazard ratio, 2.05; 95% confidence interval, 1.58-2.65). When assessed in a multivariate analysis, RFA was still significantly associated with cancer recurrence (HR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.48-2.57; P less than .001).
The finding of equal survival but greater recurrence among RFA patients persisted in a third propensity analysis, which employed nearest-neighbor one-to-one matching of 84 patients in each group in terms of age, sex, tumor size, tumor number, platelet counts, hepatitis status, and several other parameters.
The only subgroup for which RFA was equal to SR in terms of both survival and tumor recurrence was patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma less than 2 cm in size, known as "very early small HCC (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage 0)" tumors.
According to the authors, their study "highlights the importance of close surveillance after local ablation therapy." Additionally, the authors concluded that RFA may be a good alternative to surgical resection for BCLC stage 0 HCC, although prospective study is needed.
Dr. Hung and colleagues disclosed no conflicts of interest related to this study.
http://www.internalmedicinenews.com
Darren John Ellwood walks to raise awareness about Hepatitis C
The long road to awareness
HOLLY MCALISTER
04 Jan, 2011 11:25 AM
A Wellington man is walking to raise awareness for a disease which is not often publicised in Australia.
Darren John Ellwood will be conducting three walks to raise awareness about Hepatitis C, with the first scheduled to begin on New Year’s Day.
“Hep C is something that hasn’t got much publicity in Australia,” Mr Ellwood said.
“I’m hoping these walks will make people pay attention to the disease.
“My first walk will be from Wellington to Dubbo and back.
“My second walk is from Wellington to Orange and back on January 15.
“The third walk will be bigger - Wellington to Sydney starting on June 1.”
Mr Ellwood certainly has a good reason to pioneer Hepatitis C awareness.
“I was diagnosed with (the disease) two years ago and was treated in Dubbo and cured,” he said.
“I got it from a blood transfusion I had after a car accident in the 1990s.
“A lot of people think that Hep C is something that only drug users get but you can get it from anything where needles are involved - drugs, blood transfusions, tattooing.”
Mr Ellwood said he was petitioning local businesses for small sponsorships.
“I’m not doing this to make any money, so I don’t want donations or anything,” Mr Ellwood said.
“If local businesses would like to sponsor me all I’m asking is for things I would need on the walk - bandaids and drink bottles, that sort of thing.
“Businesses would get their names on the caravan that will be travelling with me on the walk as well.”
Mr Ellwood’s campaign mirrors that of American Joe Melsha, who is walking across the United States to raise Hepatitis C awareness after his mother died from the disease.
“There are more people in the world who die from this disease than know they’ve ever had it,” Mr Ellwood said.
“The only way it can be detected is through regular blood tests and hopefully these walks will convince people, especially those in the baby boomer generation, that they should get these blood tests done.”
Mr Ellwood is being sponsored by Keirle’s Pharmacy, Healthsense Pharmacy, Speddo’s Hire Wellington, GDM Sales and Kitch and Sons.
Mr Ellwood’s walk from Wellington to Dubbo will leave from Cameron Park on January 1.
To join Mr Ellwood on the walk or to sponsor the Sydney walk, visit the ‘Walk for Hep C’ Facebook page or call Mr Ellwood on 0447 697 897.
http://www.wellingtontimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/the-long-road-to-awareness/2038948.aspx
HOLLY MCALISTER
04 Jan, 2011 11:25 AM
A Wellington man is walking to raise awareness for a disease which is not often publicised in Australia.
Darren John Ellwood will be conducting three walks to raise awareness about Hepatitis C, with the first scheduled to begin on New Year’s Day.
“Hep C is something that hasn’t got much publicity in Australia,” Mr Ellwood said.
“I’m hoping these walks will make people pay attention to the disease.
“My first walk will be from Wellington to Dubbo and back.
“My second walk is from Wellington to Orange and back on January 15.
“The third walk will be bigger - Wellington to Sydney starting on June 1.”
Mr Ellwood certainly has a good reason to pioneer Hepatitis C awareness.
“I was diagnosed with (the disease) two years ago and was treated in Dubbo and cured,” he said.
“I got it from a blood transfusion I had after a car accident in the 1990s.
“A lot of people think that Hep C is something that only drug users get but you can get it from anything where needles are involved - drugs, blood transfusions, tattooing.”
Mr Ellwood said he was petitioning local businesses for small sponsorships.
“I’m not doing this to make any money, so I don’t want donations or anything,” Mr Ellwood said.
“If local businesses would like to sponsor me all I’m asking is for things I would need on the walk - bandaids and drink bottles, that sort of thing.
“Businesses would get their names on the caravan that will be travelling with me on the walk as well.”
Mr Ellwood’s campaign mirrors that of American Joe Melsha, who is walking across the United States to raise Hepatitis C awareness after his mother died from the disease.
“There are more people in the world who die from this disease than know they’ve ever had it,” Mr Ellwood said.
“The only way it can be detected is through regular blood tests and hopefully these walks will convince people, especially those in the baby boomer generation, that they should get these blood tests done.”
Mr Ellwood is being sponsored by Keirle’s Pharmacy, Healthsense Pharmacy, Speddo’s Hire Wellington, GDM Sales and Kitch and Sons.
Mr Ellwood’s walk from Wellington to Dubbo will leave from Cameron Park on January 1.
To join Mr Ellwood on the walk or to sponsor the Sydney walk, visit the ‘Walk for Hep C’ Facebook page or call Mr Ellwood on 0447 697 897.
http://www.wellingtontimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/the-long-road-to-awareness/2038948.aspx
Blood Test To Spot Cancer Gets Big Boost from Johnson & Johnson
January 3, 2011
BOSTON (AP) -- A blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor's office.
Boston scientists who invented the test and health care giant Johnson & Johnson will announce Monday that they are joining forces to bring it to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year.
Stray cancer cells in the blood mean that a tumor has spread or is likely to, many doctors believe. A test that can capture such cells has the potential to transform care for many types of cancer, especially breast, prostate, colon and lung.
Initially, doctors want to use the test to try to predict what treatments would be best for each patient's tumor and find out quickly if they are working.
"This is like a liquid biopsy" that avoids painful tissue sampling and may give a better way to monitor patients than periodic imaging scans, said Dr. Daniel Haber, chief of Massachusetts General Hospital's cancer center and one of the test's inventors.
Ultimately, the test may offer a way to screen for cancer besides the mammograms, colonoscopies and other less-than-ideal methods used now.
"There's a lot of potential here, and that's why there's a lot of excitement," said Dr. Mark Kris, lung cancer chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He had no role in developing the test, but Sloan-Kettering is one of the sites that will study it this year.
Many people have their cancers diagnosed through needle biopsies. These often do not provide enough of a sample to determine what genes or pathways control a tumor's growth. Or the sample may no longer be available by the time the patient gets sent to a specialist to decide what treatment to prescribe.
Doctors typically give a drug or radiation treatment and then do a CT scan two months later to look for tumor shrinkage. Some patients only live long enough to try one or two treatments, so a test that can gauge success sooner, by looking at cancer cells in the blood, could give patients more options.
"If you could find out quickly, 'this drug is working, stay on it,' or 'this drug is not working, try something else,' that would be huge," Haber said.
The only test on the market now to find tumor cells in blood - CellSearch, made by J&J's Veridex unit - just gives a cell count. It doesn't capture whole cells that doctors can analyze to choose treatments.
Interest in trying to collect these cells soared in 2007, after Haber and his colleagues published a study of Mass General's test. It is far more powerful than CellSearch and traps cells intact. It requires only a couple of teaspoons of blood and can be done repeatedly to monitor treatment or determine why a drug has stopped working and what to try next.
"That's what got the scientific community's interest," Kris said. Doctors can give a drug one day and sample blood the next day to see if the circulating tumor cells are gone, he explained.
The test uses a microchip that resembles a lab slide covered in 78,000 tiny posts, like bristles on a hairbrush. The posts are coated with antibodies that bind to tumor cells. When blood is forced across the chip, cells ping off the posts like balls in a pinball machine. The cancer cells stick, and stains make them glow so researchers can count and capture them for study.
The test can find one cancer cell in a billion or more healthy cells, said Mehmet Toner, a Harvard University bioengineer who helped design it. Researchers know this because they spiked blood samples with cancer cells and then searched for them with the chip.
Studies of the chip have been published in the journals Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine. It is the most promising of several dozen that companies and universities are rushing to develop to capture circulating tumor cells, said Bob McCormack, technology chief for Veridex.
The agreement announced Monday will have Veridex and J&J's Ortho Biotech Oncology unit work to improve the microchip, including trying a cheaper plastic to make it practical for mass production. No price goal has been set, a company official said, but the current CellSearch test costs several hundred dollars.
The companies will start a research center at Mass General and will have rights to license the test from the hospital, which holds the patents.
In a separate effort, Mass General, Sloan-Kettering, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston will start using the test this year. They are one of the "dream teams" sharing a $15 million grant from the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, run by the American Association for Cancer Research.
Already, scientists have been surprised to find that more cancer patients harbor these stray cells than has been believed. In one study, the test was used on men thought to have cancer confined to the prostate, "but we found these cells in two-thirds of patients," Toner said.
This might mean that cancer cells enter the blood soon after a tumor starts, or that more cancers have already spread but are unseen by doctors.
Or it could mean something else entirely, because researchers have much to learn about these cells, said Dr. Minetta Liu, a breast cancer specialist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. She led a session on them at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and has been a paid speaker for Veridex. She hopes the cells will someday aid cancer screening.
"The dream is, a woman comes in for her mammogram and gets a tube of blood drawn," so doctors can look for cancer cells in her blood as well as tumors on the imaging exam, she said.
That's still far off, but Mass General's test already is letting doctors monitor patients without painful biopsies. Like Greg Vrettos, who suffered a collapsed lung from a biopsy in 2004, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
"It had spread to both lungs and they couldn't operate," said Vrettos, 63, a nonsmoker and retired electrical engineer from Durham, N.H. Tests from the biopsy showed that he was a good candidate for the drug Iressa, which he has taken ever since. He goes to Boston every three months for CT scans and the blood test.
"They could look at the number of cancer cells and see that it dropped over time. It corresponded with what the scans were showing," Vrettos said of doctors looking at his blood tests.
The test also showed when he had a setback last January and needed to have his treatment adjusted.
"I think it's going to be revolutionary," he said of the test.
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/333.html
BOSTON (AP) -- A blood test so sensitive that it can spot a single cancer cell lurking among a billion healthy ones is moving one step closer to being available at your doctor's office.
Boston scientists who invented the test and health care giant Johnson & Johnson will announce Monday that they are joining forces to bring it to market. Four big cancer centers also will start studies using the experimental test this year.
Stray cancer cells in the blood mean that a tumor has spread or is likely to, many doctors believe. A test that can capture such cells has the potential to transform care for many types of cancer, especially breast, prostate, colon and lung.
Initially, doctors want to use the test to try to predict what treatments would be best for each patient's tumor and find out quickly if they are working.
"This is like a liquid biopsy" that avoids painful tissue sampling and may give a better way to monitor patients than periodic imaging scans, said Dr. Daniel Haber, chief of Massachusetts General Hospital's cancer center and one of the test's inventors.
Ultimately, the test may offer a way to screen for cancer besides the mammograms, colonoscopies and other less-than-ideal methods used now.
"There's a lot of potential here, and that's why there's a lot of excitement," said Dr. Mark Kris, lung cancer chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He had no role in developing the test, but Sloan-Kettering is one of the sites that will study it this year.
Many people have their cancers diagnosed through needle biopsies. These often do not provide enough of a sample to determine what genes or pathways control a tumor's growth. Or the sample may no longer be available by the time the patient gets sent to a specialist to decide what treatment to prescribe.
Doctors typically give a drug or radiation treatment and then do a CT scan two months later to look for tumor shrinkage. Some patients only live long enough to try one or two treatments, so a test that can gauge success sooner, by looking at cancer cells in the blood, could give patients more options.
"If you could find out quickly, 'this drug is working, stay on it,' or 'this drug is not working, try something else,' that would be huge," Haber said.
The only test on the market now to find tumor cells in blood - CellSearch, made by J&J's Veridex unit - just gives a cell count. It doesn't capture whole cells that doctors can analyze to choose treatments.
Interest in trying to collect these cells soared in 2007, after Haber and his colleagues published a study of Mass General's test. It is far more powerful than CellSearch and traps cells intact. It requires only a couple of teaspoons of blood and can be done repeatedly to monitor treatment or determine why a drug has stopped working and what to try next.
"That's what got the scientific community's interest," Kris said. Doctors can give a drug one day and sample blood the next day to see if the circulating tumor cells are gone, he explained.
The test uses a microchip that resembles a lab slide covered in 78,000 tiny posts, like bristles on a hairbrush. The posts are coated with antibodies that bind to tumor cells. When blood is forced across the chip, cells ping off the posts like balls in a pinball machine. The cancer cells stick, and stains make them glow so researchers can count and capture them for study.
The test can find one cancer cell in a billion or more healthy cells, said Mehmet Toner, a Harvard University bioengineer who helped design it. Researchers know this because they spiked blood samples with cancer cells and then searched for them with the chip.
Studies of the chip have been published in the journals Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine. It is the most promising of several dozen that companies and universities are rushing to develop to capture circulating tumor cells, said Bob McCormack, technology chief for Veridex.
The agreement announced Monday will have Veridex and J&J's Ortho Biotech Oncology unit work to improve the microchip, including trying a cheaper plastic to make it practical for mass production. No price goal has been set, a company official said, but the current CellSearch test costs several hundred dollars.
The companies will start a research center at Mass General and will have rights to license the test from the hospital, which holds the patents.
In a separate effort, Mass General, Sloan-Kettering, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston will start using the test this year. They are one of the "dream teams" sharing a $15 million grant from the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, run by the American Association for Cancer Research.
Already, scientists have been surprised to find that more cancer patients harbor these stray cells than has been believed. In one study, the test was used on men thought to have cancer confined to the prostate, "but we found these cells in two-thirds of patients," Toner said.
This might mean that cancer cells enter the blood soon after a tumor starts, or that more cancers have already spread but are unseen by doctors.
Or it could mean something else entirely, because researchers have much to learn about these cells, said Dr. Minetta Liu, a breast cancer specialist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. She led a session on them at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and has been a paid speaker for Veridex. She hopes the cells will someday aid cancer screening.
"The dream is, a woman comes in for her mammogram and gets a tube of blood drawn," so doctors can look for cancer cells in her blood as well as tumors on the imaging exam, she said.
That's still far off, but Mass General's test already is letting doctors monitor patients without painful biopsies. Like Greg Vrettos, who suffered a collapsed lung from a biopsy in 2004, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
"It had spread to both lungs and they couldn't operate," said Vrettos, 63, a nonsmoker and retired electrical engineer from Durham, N.H. Tests from the biopsy showed that he was a good candidate for the drug Iressa, which he has taken ever since. He goes to Boston every three months for CT scans and the blood test.
"They could look at the number of cancer cells and see that it dropped over time. It corresponded with what the scans were showing," Vrettos said of doctors looking at his blood tests.
The test also showed when he had a setback last January and needed to have his treatment adjusted.
"I think it's going to be revolutionary," he said of the test.
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/333.html
Video: IL28B gene and hepatitis c treatment
Learn More Here Folks
HCV New Drug Research and Liver Health
TT - Poorest response to Hepatitis C treatment.
CC - Best response to Hepatitis C treatment.
CT - Somewhere in between TT and CC alleles.
More Videos @At Our You Tube Channel
Also Check Out :
Evaluation of the Performance Characteristics of 6 Rapid HIV Antibody Tests
Evaluation of the Performance Characteristics of 6 Rapid HIV Antibody Tests
Download
Kevin P. Delaney1, Bernard M. Branson1, Apurva Uniyal2, Susan Phillips1, Debra Candal1,
S. Michele Owen1, and Peter R. Kerndt2 +
Author Affiliations
1Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention–Surveillance and Epidemiology, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
2STD Control Program, Los Angeles County Department of Health, Los Angeles, California
Correspondence: Kevin P. Delaney, MPH, Div of HIV/AIDS Prevention, CDC, Mailstop E46, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA (kdelaney@cdc.gov).
Abstract
1Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention–Surveillance and Epidemiology, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
2STD Control Program, Los Angeles County Department of Health, Los Angeles, California
Correspondence: Kevin P. Delaney, MPH, Div of HIV/AIDS Prevention, CDC, Mailstop E46, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA (kdelaney@cdc.gov).
Abstract
Background.
Since 2002, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved 6 rapid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tests for use in the United States. To date, there has been no direct comparison of the performance of all 6 tests.
Methods.
Persons known to be HIV-infected and persons who sought HIV testing at 2 clinical sites in Los Angeles, California, were recruited for evaluation of 6 rapid HIV tests with whole blood, oral fluid, serum, and plasma specimens. Sensitivity and specificity of the rapid tests were compared with viral lysate and immunoglobulin (Ig) M–sensitive peptide HIV enzyme immunoassays (EIAs).
Results.
A total of 6282 specimens were tested. Sensitivity was >95% and specificity was >99% for all rapid tests. Compared with the IgM-sensitive EIA, rapid tests gave false-negative results with an additional 2–5 specimens. All rapid tests had statistically equivalent performance characteristics, based on overlapping confidence intervals for sensitivity and specificity, compared with either conventional EIA.
Conclusions.
All 6 rapid tests have high sensitivity and specificity, compared with that of conventional EIAs. Because performance was similar for all tests and specimen types, other characteristics, such as convenience, time to result, shelf life, and cost will likely be determining factors for selection of a rapid HIV screening test for a specific application.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)