This is pathetic. When they did it to WGM down in Houston, I thought of it as an aberration-stupid but otherwise just a bad hair day for the rater. What we all forget is that the big cheese DRO had to sign off on this, too. Now you have two idiots out walking around. We call that IOWA. They actually incorporated it into a State name. I’m sure you were wondering about that. But this happened in St. Paul, not St. Pete or Houston. Is it an idiot virus infecting the M-21? Who knows. vA calls it new age rating with 98% accuracy. Now if they’d just take it up a notch to 125 days, we’d really be cooking with gas. Look Ma! No backlog!
The examiner also provided a “Medical opinion summary” in which she stated that the Veteran’s hepatitis C was less likely than not caused by or a result of his military service. Her explanation was “contact with prostitute(s) while in service in VietNam is his greatest known risk factor fo (sic) hepatitis C. This would constitute willful misconduct and therefore his hepatitis is less than 50/50 probability due to mil. service.”
Whoa! Is that a typo or a slight against Ebonics? Adobe Acrobat abandoned this woman. The last sentence is grammatically incorrect. Now, keep that thought and bear with me. If he got it from a prostitute(s) that he freely admitted he had sexual congress with unprotected, then it is service connected. This rater is both verbally and mentally challenged. She wants to say it’s due to willful misconduct in the military but because it’s willful, it is not payable. She inadvertently hamburgered her phraseology and ended up with the above. VLJ Milo Hawley politely steers her back in the right direction but, just like WGM, the die is cast. Its service connection for the St. Pauli girl guy. And contrary to what the M-21s in Houston and St. Paul say, it isn’t willful misconduct. Stupid, perhaps, but not willful. There’s a big financial difference as St. Pauli guy is about to find out. But wait. When Milo speaks, the Minneapolis RO listens:
The Board finds this medical opinion to be evidence favorable to a grant of service connection for hepatitis C. The examiner stated that the most likely cause of the Veteran’s hepatitis C was sex with prostitute(s). Indeed, this is one of the risk factors listed on the questionnaire sent to the Veteran by VA and it is the only risk factor acknowledged by the Veteran in that questionnaire. The examiner’s statement that his hepatitis C was not caused or the result of his military service is not an expert medical opinion because her rationale for that conclusion was her own legal determination that his sexual activity with prostitute(s) was misconduct. As this is not a medical reason for the unfavorable conclusion, that part of her opinion is without any probative value. What is clear from her medical opinion is that the most likely cause of his hepatitis C is his sexual activity with a prostitute during service.
The first question that runs through your mind is “Is this what fluoride does to your brain?” A close second would be “This is the bubblehead doing my rating?” Gad Zooks. It becomes a scream when you think the GS-14 (DRO) supervising her was part and parcel of this idiot’s delight. Rest assured that no one will be reprimanded for this. Bonus payments will continue apace. Janitors will be promoted to raters and mental competence, as we know it in the Minneapolis-St. Paul RO will continue to be a rare commodity.
And poor old WGM thought he’d go down in history as one unique guy with the luck of the Viet Cong.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
I have abandoned all hope that vA will ever do the right thing for HCV Veterans, since they surely have known that I was infected via multiple blood tx in 1984 (during active service), had surgery at a VAMC in 2006, which required yet another blood tx, but didn’t bother letting me in on this ‘secret’ until this year?
Surely before they transfused me with more whole blood in 2006, they would have tested mine and known. What about the blood I donated throughout the 90s and 2000s? You mean to tell me it wasn’t tested then??
vA’s own gastro’s have put the date of infection right squarely at the time of the initial transfusions in 1984-85, so were they waiting for me to find out on my own, or were they hoping that I would commit some type of heinous ‘willful misconduct’ to point to for denial? Was this to spare my widdle feelers with good intent?
Is this just one big coinky-dink?
Misunderstanding?
C’mon! Toss me a freakin’ bone here!
Anybody?
If the Vet picked up the bug in-Country from the natives; then he should have that country’s predominant type. Each country has a unique type. He was handed a CUE if his type is not the same as the natives.
All that is needed at this point is one Nexus letter saying “near constant debilating episodes” and you are SC 100% P&T.
Am I reading this right? The veteran admitted to sex with a prostitute, without a raincoat, but he didn’t get a STD. He did get HCV however so it’s SC?
WGW: Isn’t it possible a new prostitute got infected with say, 1a, from an American client? And then passed it on?
This is a Quote from one of my Nexus leters: “Transmission thru sex is rare 0-6% a year in a monogamous relationship and around 1% in multiple short term relationships. It is much more likely to be transmitted thru mass vaccination practices due to contaminated needles or equipment.”
This Quote from CDC:
According to Centers for Disease Control; Sexual transmission of HCV studies show the risk of sexual transmission in heterosexual, monogamous relationships is extremely rare or even nil.
It’s mighty unlickely, one can spread or contract hcv from sex.
It is close to impossible to get hcv via sex.
HCV is strictly blood to blood unlike HBV or HIV which can transfer with other body fluids. The $60,000 question is: In which ways can there be blood to blood contact during sex?
Genotype distribution is a fascinating topic really. In war during major battles when large quantities of blood are needed; more often than not blood is taken from the local population historically speaking. The blood supply during Vietnam was flown in from bases in Japan primarily. In the pie charts you will notice that 3 is not as prevalent in Vietnam today as it once was. Yet 3 is still dominant in Cambodia and Laos. However 1a really never caught on in Korea and Japan, even though US forces occupied those countries after WWII. It appears as though some major event occurred to transmit 1a during Vietnam and post-Vietnam. Could it have been the best transmission route available, which is mass vaccination of the military?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC100152/figure/F2/
Yep. The largest risk of all; Herd inoculations, with Jet Guns, and Herd inoculations without Jet Guns.
If the Munjis didn’t get ya then you had to get through the hemo-goblin guantlet. Poked and poked agin, Lord knows with what. Whoops reused the vials, shucks!
All Dental and Medical equipment was another chance to get it, until the 80’s.
Its still Herd exposure risk.
I agree with all the comments above regarding all medical devices, barber’s razors. In terms of transmission via sex, “rough sex” practices which can causing bleeding, is being studied in populations with HIV/HCV together. I don’t know if we’re ready to tackle that information explicitly here yet because it can be disturbing.
I can’t speak to rough sex; I don’t know anything about it.
I haven’t read about it or talked about it.
I prefer to leave the rough out of sex. I couldn’t even give myself a shot.
Sure, its possible to get hcv that way; but I suspect it is quite rare, but I’m guessing.