CAUTION: “This document was published by CDC in 1984;…multi-use-nozzle jet injectors are discouraged”

CDC Don't use multi-dose nozzle jet injectors

DO NOT, WE REPEAT, DO NOT USE JET INJECTORS!!

Well, well, what do we have here?  Accessed today April 2, 2013 with underlines added.

“CAUTION: This document was published by CDC in 1984 to record the experience and lessons learned from applying epidemiologic principles to humanitarian relief efforts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The goal was to preserve CDC’s institutional memory for future generations of CDC responders to natural and manmade disasters. Although the epidemiologic techniques and general principles remain valid, the usage described of certain drugs, vaccines, and other specific health-related strategies may be obsolete. For example, consult more recent guidelines for drug-resistant malaria, antibiotic usage, presumptive treatments, and vaccination technologies (auto-disable syringes are now preferred; multi-use-nozzle jet injectors are discouraged).”

emergency book

Report cover

Example of what NOT to do today:

The “Pedijet” was used (page 52) to inject 9,010 children with doses of measles vaccine within one week.

Chapter 26  Vaccination Programs for Refugees (Page 138):  

“Miscellaneous:  A jet injector and 50-dose vaccine vials must be available if a large number of children are to be vaccinated in a short period of time.”

We don’t know how syringes were sterilized or how the blood bank conducted activities in these crowded refugee camps.  But at last, someone at the CDC is apparently serious about preventing the transmission of pathogens via unsafe vaccination techniques like the use of jet injectors.  

The spread of infectious diseases was the unintended consequence of mass vaccination campaigns meant to protect people in the past and that’s why the caution language is front and center before the download link to the pdf. is provided.

But CDC, the public has a right to know the details.

http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tsunamis/pdf/emergency-refugee-health-care-1984.pdf

 

jet gun image

The MUNJI: A deadly medical device

 

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WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF I DIED?

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This, too, from Jim of the Mekong waters.He of Swift Boat fame sends us some really choice stuff. Too bad I can’t publish all that Swift Boat humor about, well, nevermind.

A  Vet and his wife are sitting quietly in bed-she reading and he watching the 11 PM sports-when the Wife looks over at him and asks the question. You know. That question.

WIFE: “What would you do if I died? Would you get  married again?”

HUSBAND: “Definitely  not!”

WIFE: “Why not?   Don’t you like being married?”

HUSBAND: “Of course I do.”

WIFE: “Then why  wouldn’t you remarry? ”

HUSBAND: “Okay, okay, I’d get married again.”

WIFE: “You would?”  (with a hurt look)

HUSBAND: (makes audible groan)

WIFE: “Would you live  in our house?”

HUSBAND:  “Sure,it’s a great house.”

WIFE: “Would you sleep with her in our bed?”

HUSBAND: “Where else  would we sleep?”

WIFE:  “Would you let her drive my car?”

HUSBAND:”Probably, it is almost new.”

WIFE: “Would you  replace my pictures with hers?”

HUSBAND: “That would seem like the proper thing to  do.”

WIFE: “Would you  give her my jewelry?”

HUSBAND: “No, I’m sure she’d want her own.”

WIFE: “Would you take  her golfing with you?

HUSBAND: “Yes, those are always good times.”

WIFE: “Would she use my  clubs?

HUSBAND: “No,  she’s left-handed.”

WIFE: — silence —

HUSBAND:   “shit.”

This is ample proof that you should mute the TV or put the paper down in the morning and l-i-s-t-e-n to avoid this kind of occurrence. J1VO, mind you.

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NEW PRESIDENTIAL LIMOUSINE PICTURE RELEASED

This just in from Brownwater Jim who’s relatives work on the Lincoln/Mercury line over in Detroit. I think it has class. It says “Second Term, Babay!” The govt. is reputedly gearing up the line for 50 of these at a cost of $2.5 million apiece. Don’t they get a Fleet rate?

New presidential limosine

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HERE’S ONE FOR YOU-NINETEEN FOR ME

Sen. Feinstein at West LA VA campus

Sen. Feinstein at West LA VA campus

Here’s an interesting article from member Shawn that bears reading and passing on. Please excuse the political drama at the end. We have yet to get any administration “behind” us and our problems-ever. Face it, immigration and free medical-for-all are going to crowd out our agenda until we form a Bonus Army and ride into DC. In the interim, seeing Senator Feinstein steal Veterans’ property held in sacred trust is  par for the course. It would have really have been the straw that stirred the drink if it happened up here in Senator Murray’s back yard.

Sen. Murray and her "Pet Vets"

Sen. Murray and her “Pet Vets”

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VETS AND MEDICAL CARE

Here’s a hot one for Vets’ spouses to check out. Not all of us have that gold-plated 20/80 medical /dental plan. Many have less or none. Vets and their wives are at an even greater disadvantage until they get to a meaningful rating. Even then, the spouse is often given the cold shoulder.

Good advice and great data. Thank you Randy.

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SOFOSBUVIR AND DACLATASVIR–WAITING FOR THE SUN

hep central

This is a wonderful piece of information by Nicole Cutler L. Ac from Hepatitis Central that confirms what we’ve been advocating here at Asknod. Why put yourself through a three-drug cocktail when just one (Interferon) will maim you for life? It’s like getting to wear a “I went over Niagara Falls in an innertube, Dude!” and being  a mushroom sandwich after all the neurological damage. So much to tell- so little capability. This is way past a prefrontal lobotomy. Common sense demands a second look and a third opinion.

Every single one of you I have helped who went through this disgraceful “experiment” has some form of physical or mental scar. It’s revolting. Interferon has been trotted out for every new viral disease that came down the pike for thirty years now and it continues to maim new ones yet. Adding Boceprivir or Teleprevir into the mix may have upped the percentage of cure but in no way addressed the underlying damage wrought by the rat piss.

Kiedove (naturally) spotted this batch of goodies and promptly sent them to me. It discusses new “-previrs” I’ve never heard of. Some must emanate from Europe as they are no strangers to this epidemic.

Epidemic,indeed. We are now more numerous that people with HIV/AIDS. Who gets the research dollars? Come on. Remember the early years of AIDS? Sympathy was in short supply for gays and junkies-right up until it started popping up in the heterosexual population. The hemophiliacs were getting creamed , too. We’ll always be junkies and drug crazies to the majority of America (and VA) because nobody such as Tom Cruise has it.

We’ll see this in VAMCs within 10 years. The problem right now is VA went long on Vertex/Victrela futures and got caught with about ten trainloads of this three-drug death cocktail. They’ll be pushing it like they did the Alloderm until the available stock runs out.  Their sotto voce Field of Screams motto is “If we hand it out for free, they will come“. Many have and continue to do so as we speak. I just lit a fire in a gal Vet down in Missouri who was getting ready to drink the improved Mai Tais they’re handing out. She found Gilead Sciences and is on the road to the Interferon-free ones.

As most know, I’m headed into this new cattle chute via the generosity of Gilead Sciences as well.  The GS7977 trial is reputed to be Sofosbuvir/ribavirin @ 12/16 weeks with SVR at 4. There is also the chance that I may be on the Daclatasvir solo or a Daclatasvir/Ribavirin combo. Being autoimmune challenged and genotype 3A, my success is quoted at 63%.

Here’s a new one that old style, through-the-ribs needle-core biopsies can’t detect. The latest is to send in a pressure sensor with the biopsy probe when doing the transjugular biopsy technique. It’s like checking tire pressure. The results tell you if there is portal hypertension. This, as most know, is what provokes ascites. When the liver turns into a peach pit and gets hard, blood can’t get through. That is the essence of cirrhosis. The harder the liver gets (fibrosis), the higher your portal pressure  which causes ascites when the blood can’t get through. Nasty business, this disease.

This is why you want to keep yourself healthy and grow nice, clean, organic stuff with goat poop on it instead of Miguel’s and Monsanto’s. You can actually neutralize the bad effects to a great degree and get into a holding pattern. Gilead has already said they’re going public with this next year. A body would be well-advised to ante up and “see”  their doctor for a referral to the head witch doctor with all the feathers on his hat. This  gentleman will be glad to get rid of you by now. Remember? He’s the one who told you the pegintron was cutting edge medicine…in 1996. And the one who said pegasys/ RIBA was the last word in eradication in 1999…and again in 2003…and again in 2008 with Teleprivir.

Sit tight. If you live in some unreal medical situation/state and have no access to or haven’t heard about this yet, it’s time to start beating the bush closer in. It’s going to be right off the edge expensive due to all the research into polymerase inhibitors alone. Finding the combo to combat each genotype is pure genius. This disease has lost and doesn’t even know it’s days are numbered. Just be sure you don’t destroy yourself on Vertex when the Holy Grail of HCVets is visible on the horizon.

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REVISIONIST HISTORY

Here we go again. This from member Jennifer. VA and the military would have us disremember the 80s and 90s when we first started coming forward with AO issues. Backlog? Q’est que c’est que ça? The Vietnam redux lives on. Now, in 2013, we are to believe this is a brand new phenomenon. Here’s a blast from the past of old clips and new.

Of more import is the idea that March 29th, 2013 somehow marks the 40th anniversary of our departure from the land of the red clay. The historians who declare these things must not be on the same page with some of us. Those of you who were assigned to MACV or 1st SOG might disagree with this date. Hell, I know a lot of guys who worked with Montagnards would. Until all the non-disclosure agreements expire and some of the good stuff comes out, we’ll all be forced to swallow the pablum served up. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.

6a00d834515edc69e200e5501c94318834-800wi

This was down the street from the US Embassy at Air America several days before May 7th, 1975.

I’m a stickler for accuracy. If there were Marine guards at the Embassy until May 7th, they constitute “troops”. As VA uses May 7th, 1975 for the AO cut off date, I think it is safe to assume their largesse is intentional.

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Army K-9 Security

US Army K-9 security

pant, pant….
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Shane Hamann, 102nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.

(3/25/13)

“Sgt. Justin R. Pereira, from Gooding, Idaho, and Laika 5, a Tactical Explosives Detection Dog with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, provide security as Afghan Border Police break ground on a new checkpoint March 25, in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan. The ABP moved to the new location to block an insurgent infiltration route.”

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Americans, illicit drug injections, and blood-borne pathogens

How many Americans put themselves at risk for blood-borne pathogens by injecting drugs?

Today’s population: U.S. 315,589,877

CDC (after Epidemiology section)

 “Approximately 1.2 million persons in the United States injected drugs in 2002 (24).”

24.  Brady JE, Friedman SR, Cooper HL, Flom PL, Tempalski B, Gostnell K. Estimating the prevalence of injection drug users in the U.S. and in large U.S. metropolitan areas from 1992 to 2002. J Urban Health 2008;85:323–51.

CDC:  “The prevalence of a history of injection-drug use remained relatively stable at 1.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4%–1.6%; weighted estimate: 3.4 million persons) during 1979–2002 (25).” 

25.  Armstrong GL. Injection drug users in the United States, 1979–2002: an aging population. Arch Intern Med 2007;167:166–73.

There is no question that as a group,  IDUs have a high concentration of blood-borne pathogens because of their unsterile practices.

We can gain perspective from American data estimates because they shows that HCV cannot be dismissed as mainly an IV drug users disease.  There are just too few IVDUs in the U. S. to account for most of the early cases of blood-borne infections. 

For example, look at a CDC chart of new acute cases of HCV.  We see that the numbers dropped rapidly after 1990s when the DOD withdrew jet gun injectors, the blood-supply and blood products became safer, and other medical interventions became safer. hcv 82-97

hcv 97-2010

 

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VHA to providers: we have 165,000 chronically HCV-infected veterans in our care

hcv death by year

GRIM REAPER WILL BE CALLING

From Issue 8, Winter 2012 Public Health Matters Newsletter, Clinical Public Health, VHA Office of Public Health

“Dear Colleagues,

Data from the VA’s National Clinical Case Registry for hepatitis C virus (HCV) confirm the burden of disease in the VA Health Care System and prepare providers for the road ahead as deaths from chronic HCV are expected to rise sharply during the next 10 years.”

At ASKNOD, we know that–

“…Most Veterans with chronic HCV in VA care in recent years were likely infected during the Vietnam War era (1964–1975). Given the natural history of chronic HCV, one would expect to see increasing numbers of conditions related to progression of liver disease, including cirrhosis and HCC.”

Doing some easy subtraction–Veterans who die of diseases from chronic HCV in 2020, and were infected in 1964, will have had HCV for 56 years according to the natural history of the disease.  

The VA (RO and BVA) and Congress (both parties) know this but shamelessly play games with veterans.

Since most veterans are in private health care (about 75%) is it safe to crudely estimate over 600,000 veterans are being treated for  HCV in private care?

A highly-cited government study of the general population, The Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in the United States, 1999 through 2002 , has promoted the myth that IDU was the main cause of HCV-infections in the 45-65 age birth cohort because 46.6% of those in the study reported IDU at some point in the past.  Although they did note that over 60% of HCV-study participants received transfusions before 1992, by the questions  asked, and more to the point, didn’t ask about medical interventions.  It sure looks and sounds pretty but it’s a lousy biased study!

Miriam J. Alter, PhD., is one of the influential authors.  Her name (and voice in online HCV lectures) surfaces again and again but unfortunately, she’s a researcher with blinders on.  (She is not related to Harvey Alter, a prominent HCV scientist.)  Both the Alters are mentioned in this 20-year-old article: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/19/science/mysterious-epidemic-of-furtive-liver-virus.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

This article references studies that might help track down the origin of HCV in American troops in the ’40s or earlier.

Update:  I changed IVDU to IDU because according to one physician (Pepin, J.) IDU  is an abbreviation that can refer to an injection drug user or intravenous drug user.

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