| National News | International News  | What's That Big Red Thing in St Andrew Square? SCOTLAND :: Viral Hepatitis
Edinburgh Reporter (07.17.2013) :: By Phyllis Stephen | | | “The Big Red C,” a new hepatitis C campaign in Scotland, targets the estimated 18,000 infected Scottish people who are not aware they have the disease. The campaign features a two-meter high red C, which currently is on display at St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh. Several hepatitis charities back the NHS Health Scotland-supported campaign. The campaign slogan, “Ever injected? Get tested. Hep C—it can be cured,” highlights the risks for anyone who ever injected drugs and encourages them to get tested.
Hepatitis C virus can cause liver damage, potentially leading to cirrhosis, cancer, and death; however, symptoms might not appear for many years. According to Leon Wylie, lead officer of Hepatitis Scotland, “Hepatitis C is a major health challenge in Scotland. It is vitally important that anyone who has ever injected drugs, even once, accesses testing.” He added that “up to 15,000 of those 18,000 estimated to be infected are no longer injecting drugs. So people who used or experimented with injecting drugs in the 70s, 80s, and 90s—the so-called Baby Boomer and Generation X—may not be aware that they could be carrying the virus. This makes them one of the key target groups for the new campaign.”
Wylie encouraged people to get tested at their doctors’ offices or a local sexual health clinic, adding, “[It] is just an easy pin-prick blood test.” Additional campaign components include a text-back service (text “hep” to 66644) and a new Web site that provides basic information about hepatitis C and links to more detailed information such as where to get tested and where to find support services. |  Read Full Article | Share this Article     | | Back to Top  |  | | Medical News  | HPV Vaccine Found to Help with Cancers of Throat COSTA RICA :: STDs
New York Times (07.18.2013) :: By Donald G. McNeil Jr. | | | Study results indicate that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that prevents women from acquiring the strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer also seems to protect them from throat cancer caused by HPV infection acquired during oral sex. At present, HPV causes approximately 70 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, compared with 16 percent in the 1980s.
Researchers studied 5,840 sexually active 18–25-year-old Costa Rican women who had received either the HPV vaccine Cervarix or placebo. At the end of four years, each participant provided a mouthwash gargle sample that collected throat cells. Results showed that only one participant who had received the HPV vaccine was infected with the HPV-16 or HPV-18 viruses that cause cancer, while 15 women who had received placebo vaccine were infected.
Dr. Rolando Herrero, head of prevention for the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the lead author, listed the limitations of the study, including the absence of men from the study and the fact that participating women were given baseline tests to make sure they had no cervical infections but were not tested for throat or anal infections because the study’s initial focus was cervical cancer. Additionally, researchers collected only one oral sample, so they did not know if any participants had persistent infections; and some people clear HPV on their own, so only a small number might lead to cancer. Herrero also noted that four years was not long enough to know how many cancers would develop. Researchers would have to wait 20 years or more to know for sure, but ethical guidelines required that all participants get regular examinations and that their physicians destroy any suspicious lesions before they turn cancerous. Herrero surmised that men would get the same protection from an HPV vaccination as the women because the vaccine produces identical antibody levels in both sexes.
Dr. Marshall R. Posner, medical director for head and neck cancer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, commented that the large discrepancy in infection rates between the control group and the vaccinated participants suggested the data were very reliable; however, he noted that no one knew the length of the vaccine’s protection or if re-vaccination was necessary.
The full report, “Reduced Prevalence of Oral Human Papillomavirus (HPV) 4 Years After Bivalent HPV Vaccination in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Costa Rica,” was published in the journal PLOS One (2013; doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068329) .
| | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Local and Community News  | Tuberculosis Outbreak Shakes Wisconsin City MINNESOTA :: TB
MPR News (07.18.2013) :: By Richard Knox | | | Sheboygan County, Wisc., recently activated its emergency operation center to contain a multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) outbreak in the city of Sheboygan in April. Public Health Nurse Jean Beineman identified the initial MDR TB infection in a woman from a large, close-knit immigrant family. Health workers subsequently diagnosed active TB in three other family members in multiple households; some were middle and high school students.
Wisconsin has large immigrant populations from Mexico and Southeast Asia, where TB is common. TB infections among Hmong immigrants from Laos and Cambodia have been the most difficult to cure.
To address the outbreak, Sheboygan County borrowed personnel from other counties; provided housing to isolate the MDR TB-infected woman; and supplied TB testing, treatment, and public education for residents. Beineman reported that the health department tested 130 students and teachers who had been in contact with the TB-infected children and located nine cases of active TB in five households; the cases were not as drug-resistant as the first case. Health department personnel also have supplied education and monitoring to keep TB-infected individuals away from the uninfected population.
Because MDR TB is resistant to at least two of the main TB drugs, antibiotic treatment for more resistant cases can cost up to $300,000 per patient. Although the health department had not yet received results from a second round of testing, public health epidemiologists estimated that Sheboygan could find as many as 15 symptomatic MDR TB cases and 200 additional latent cases, which would require nurse-supervised antibiotic treatment for six months to a year. Interruptions in latent TB treatment could result in the development of MDR TB.
Sheboygan County sought millions in supplemental state funding to cover the cost of the public health response.
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7/19/2013
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