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Week Ending: November 18th , 2006
Alan Franciscus
Editor-in-Chief
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November 12th, 2006
Paid Organ Donation: Follow the Money
http://www.bloggernews.net
Last year, a local quiz show was having an anniversary, and was promising many prizes for the studio audience. The crowds lined up, and alas, several hundred people were killed in the stampede to enter the theatre.
You see, unlike in the US, where if you work hard, you have the hope your children will be able to get an education and live comfortably, here too often there is little hope for advancement. So lotteries are seen as a blessing, the only way for a poor person to get rich.
What does this have to do with paying for organ donations?
The libertarian argument for organ donations insists that we are free agents, and that paying for organs will increase the supply with minimal problems for the donor.
Yet the reality is that poor people, who see no way to support their families, are open to be exploited by the rich who offer them huge sums of money for their organs.
Yet the promise of wealth is illusionary. A JAMA (journal of the American Medical Association) report found that if you went back and checked the donors, few actually benefited from the windfall of wealth, since often their poor health afterward made it impossible for them to work.
Ah, but it could be regulated, could it not?
But a Frontline investigation shows how India, confronted with ethical lapses in the organ transplant industry, passed a law to regulate it…but in the 12 years since that law was passed, not one doctor/clinic had lost their license.
Ah, but that is the third world, isn’t it. Such things would never go on in the United States, since we don’t have such severe destitution.
In the USA, perhaps we could have a scheme that would pay friends and relatives to compensate their donation. That would be “ethical” since the idea of altruism still applies.
We see such altruism in students donating plasma, sperm, or eggs: They need the money, but there is an altruistic reason for them to chose to do this.
Yet some of us are old enough to remember blood banks paying for blood.
Some of my fellow medical students gave blood or donated plasma regularly, again for both money and altruistic reasons.
But it was also well known that blood banks in the slums didn’t always screen their clients, taking blood from alcoholics and addicts: the result was hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Indeed, selling Plasma from Arkansas prisoners probably resulted in 42,000 cases of hepatitis C, and several thousand cases of HIV in Canada, a scandal that almost brought down the Canadian government, but was little covered in the US since it involved the then governor Clinton’s Arkansas cronies…
This brings out the dirty little secret of any ethically questionable program, from cloning to IFV to selling organs.
When the ethics is questionable, thoughtful ethical people hesitate to do the research or procedure, and although most involved with the action are good ethical people, it opens the research or procedure to the ethically challenged.
In Arkansas, the prisoners received $7 a pint. Yet those running the program made large amounts of money.
Similarly, many in India who donated organs found they were not paid the fee that they were promised, and often pre op screening and post operative follow up was minimal.
Once organ donation became associated with “big bucks”, expect the con men to come in. Most Americans are not poor, but one could foresee that a black market on smuggled organs– or smuggling in poor people to donate organs— would quickly arise.
But there is another side effect that is more ominous to the supply of organs.
Once taking organs becomes profitable, there will be a growing suspicion that doctors, or one’s family members, might let a person die so that their organs might be donated for profit.
The previously cited Frontline article mentions that this is already a problem in India. But what about the USA?
Well, when I lived in Western Pennsylvania, every weekend some good old boys would wreck their cars driving home from the bars…those with head injuries were sent to Pittsburgh, which at that time was a major transplant center.
The Helicopter and ambulance driver cynically called these transports “Body runs”, because everyone knew the person was brain dead, but if they died in Pittsburgh, the organs could be donated, and often were. The families often were religious, and saw this as a way to make sense of the death.
Yet once money became involved, such trust might not continue. Even back then I was told by two separate nurses about a person declared brain dead who woke up and had to be rescued from the transplant team…both nurses swore the story came from a friend of a friend, and the identical story occurred at two hospitals, so I am sure it was merely an urban legend. Yet the show “Law and Order” has already had an episode on a similar scenario.
Yes, these are urban legends, but as the inevitable money scandals start about the lucrative organ trade, expect voluntary donations to plunge, especially among minority groups who already have a distrust of the medical system.
A medical system that allowed the Tuskegee study of the 1940’s, the Red Lake study of the 1960’s that withheld Penicillin from patients with kidney damaging strep infections, and the early 1980’s Oklahoma City Children’s Hospital program that withheld treatment from babies according to a “quality of life” scale that resulted in mainly children of minorities dying, and the Arkansas blood scandal cited above may still be trusted by upper class libertarians, but those of us who work with Blacks and Indians in Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Oklahoma recognize that these actions still have a negative effect on our patient’s trust of the medical system.
Niebuhr’s essay that the children of light underestimate the ingenuity and aggressive tendencies of the children of darkness holds true here also.
Helping a person who freely donates an organ from altruism is probably fine. But experience shows that the adverse effects on society will soon outweigh the benefits to those suffering from end stage renal and liver disease.
–Nancy Reyes is a retired Physician living in the Philippines with her husband. Her website is Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/
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November 13th, 2006
JEFF GERRITT: Prisons Make Unhealthy Cuts on Hepatitis Testing
http://www.freep.com
About this series
Free Press editorial writer and columnist Jeff Gerritt has been examining the worsening state of health care in Michigan's nearly 50 prisons for months. Medical and mental health care in prisons costs taxpayers $280 million a year, but misdiagnoses, delayed treatment and a host of other problems plague the system, in some cases turning prison stays into death sentences.
Depending whether you believe the state or outside experts, Michigan prisons hold 7,000 to 18,000 inmates infected with hepatitis C. That's 14-40% -- and most of them don't even know they have the disease.
Contagious and potentially fatal, hepatitis C attacks the liver. The prison epidemic affects everyone. Practically all of those infected -- more than 95% -- will go home, carrying their infections and health problems with them, and in some cases spreading them. As a public health problem, the level of hepatitis C in the prison system demands the attention of not only the Department of Corrections but also the Department of Community Health and the Legislature.
Lawmakers, however, have made a bad problem even worse. They cut most of the $5.9 million that Gov. Jennifer Granholm requested in 2004 to test and treat hepatitis C in prisons, and this year whacked the funding altogether. By not routinely testing for hepatitis C, the state is failing to meet U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
"They don't test regularly enough to find people before they have a permanently damaged liver," said David Santacroce, a University of Michigan law professor who filed a class action suit in 2003 on behalf of infected inmates. "We're seeing more and more cases of people who are too sick to be treated, and they're going to die.
"It's a death sentence."
Up to 40% of the nation's prisoners have hepatitis C, compared to 2% of the general population. The infection is spread through blood, and can be passed by needles shared to inject drugs or in tattooing, through unprotected sex and, before blood screenings began in 1992, by transfusions.
Truth be told, prison administrators don't want to know everyone who has hepatitis C, because that would pressure them to treat more inmates. Drug therapies with interferon and ribavirin cost more than $10,000 for each patient, though not every infected prisoner needs them. Still, the number of inmates getting drug therapies in Michigan prisons is ridiculously low -- only 125 inmates enrolled this year. Hundreds, possibly thousands, more need it. Left untreated, the only option is a liver transplant, which costs about $250,000 and is not done in Michigan prisons.
Prison officials say they treat everyone identified as needing it. The department regularly evaluates 2,500 inmates known to have hepatitis C, said spokesman Russ Marlan. Still, medical records and lawsuits show dozens of cases where inmates were denied testing or treatment or not even notified that they had the disease.
In one case handled by Santacroce, inmate Jeffrey Muller, now dead, was taken off a liver transplant list in 2001, after he supposedly tested positive for marijuana. But law students tracked down Muller's urine sample and, using DNA, found that the sample was not Muller's.
Inmate Lionel Stewart, 54, serving 35-75 years for armed robbery, is another example of the oke-doke inmates say they get when trying to get treated. A college graduate, Stewart never made it to law school because he got hooked on heroin and robbed to feed his habit. He's up for parole in two years.
Stewart said that his levels of ALT -- an enzyme produced in higher amounts when the liver is inflamed -- were high enough early this year to qualify for drug therapies, but then the department stopped testing him. Another prison doctor, he said, is trying to get him in treatment.
"She said that, if I don't get it, I'll die," Stewart told me last week in the visiting room of Deerfield Correctional Facility in Ionia.
Another Ionia inmate, Randy Rodgers, 46, who's serving 7 to 20 years for home invasion and breaking and entering, said doctors predict he will die in two years from hepatitis C, which he may have contracted from injecting drugs or tattooing more than 20 years ago. Rodgers has been in and out of jail and prison six times, all for nonviolent offenses related to alcohol and drug abuse.
Rodgers has undergone two unsuccessful treatments in Michigan prisons for hepatitis C and wants to try a low-dosage drug therapy, but he said prison administrators wouldn't permit it.
"I've got nothing to lose," Rodgers said. "If I die, I die."
Rodgers is also trying to get a medical parole and ought to get it, especially considering his nonviolent record.
No doubt, prison medical administrators have a tough job, trying to contain an epidemic without enough money. Still, Michigan's prison system should at least routinely test all high-risk inmates, especially injection drug users, and treat those with life-threatening symptoms. Blood tests for hepatitis C cost only $35.
"Thousands of people in prisons are left to die without treatment," said Dr. Bennett Cecil of Louisville, Ky., a national expert on hepatitis C in prisons. "Cirrhosis of the liver is just as deadly as breast cancer, and we don't say we're not going to pay for that."
The prison system could be the spot where the state starts to get a handle on hepatitis C by testing and treating inmates before they get out and return to their communities. But that's not going to happen with policies that are more focused on hiding than healing.
JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press editorial writer. Contact him at gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.
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Noninvasive Diagnosis of Esophageal Varices
http://www.gastrohep.com
The platelet count/spleen diameter ratio can be used in cirrhotic screening endoscopy for esophageal varices, finds this month's American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Noninvasive assessment of esophageal varices may improve the management of patients with cirrhosis.
It may decrease both the medical and financial burden related to screening.
Dr Edoardo Giannini and colleagues from Italy prospectively validated the use of the platelet count/spleen diameter ratio for the noninvasive diagnosis of esophageal varices.
A total of 218 cirrhotic patients underwent screening endoscopy for esophageal varices.
The research team assessed platelet count/spleen diameter ratio in all patients, and calculated its diagnostic accuracy.
On the basis of previous results, a platelet count/spleen diameter ratio cutoff of 909 was applied to this population.
The diagnostic accuracy of the platelet count/spleen diameter ratio was further evaluated for both severity and etiology of disease subgroups.
The researchers found that the prevalence of esophageal varices was 54%.
The platelet count/spleen diameter ratio was accurate in 86% -- American Journal of Gastroenterology
The platelet count/spleen diameter ratio had 86% diagnostic accuracy for esophageal varices.
The team noted that this significantly greater as compared with either accuracy of platelet count alone, or spleen diameter alone.
The researchers observed that the 909 cutoff had 92% sensitivity, and 67% specificity.
The research team found that the cutoff value also gave a 77% positive predictive value, and a 87% negative predictive value.
The positive likelihood ratio was 2.8, and the negative likelihood ratio for the diagnosis of esophageal varices was 0.1.
The team noted that accuracy of the platelet count/spleen diameter ratio was maintained for both severity and etiology of disease subgroups.
Dr Giannini's team concludes, “The platelet count/spleen diameter ratio may be proposed as a safe and reproducible means to improve the management of cirrhotic patients who should undergo screening endoscopy for esophageal varices.”
Am J Gastroenterol 2006: 101(11): 2511
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November 14th, 2006
Thousands Unknowingly Infected with Hepatitis C
http://www.ksl.com
Ed Yeates Reporting
Fifty to sixty thousand people in Utah have an infection and most - probably 90 percent - don't even know they have it. While many were infected as long as 30 years ago symptoms are just now showing up.
It's like reading an insidious mystery. Imagine trying to read that mystery. You check out the book only to find the pages at the end are missing. You never find out when it happened or who did it!
Kathy Stay is in her 30's, only to find out she contracted a virus a long time ago. When and how, nobody knows for sure.
Doctors told Tim O'Rourke he had picked up the virus probably when he was only 18-years old.
Tim O'Rourke, Victim: "I was devastated. I went back to work and closed my office door and cried."
The list goes on, including people like Mick Worthen and Bruce Hatch who need to see health care workers all the time.
Bruce Hatch, Victim: "The problem with the disease is it sneaks up on you. Twenty or 30 years, you don't notice you are losing energy and that you're getting anemic and fatigued, when it's just one day at a time."
A lot of people some 30 years later are just finding out they have Hepatitis C, now considered the number one blood borne virus in the world. Amber Jarrett says symptoms are often vague and overlooked.
Amber Jarrett: "People tend to dismiss the symptoms as just stress or a busy life."
Twenty five percent of those infected get rid of it on their own, but 75 percent don't.
Tim's not a smoker, nor a drinker, doesn't shoot drugs. He has a family and a good job, and yet, Hep C suddenly triggered inside his body, and he now needs a liver transplant to survive. He tires easily, often using the lunch hour to take a nap in his car. Like Bruce Hatch, the virus attacked without warning.
Amber Jarrett, Salt Lake Valley Health Department: "It's not unusual for somebody to actually get diagnosed and already have cirrhosis and have no symptoms."
Where and when did all these folks get infected? Thirty years ago it could have been contaminated mass immunizations in the military. Bruce Hatch was in Vietnam.
Bruce Hatch: "Kind of an assembly line injections that they would give you, kind of like cattle going down the chute."
Tim was also in Vietnam, during the cleanup at the end of the war.
Tim: "Every time we landed on a tarmac or any given base in Thailand or whatever, some medic would come up and wouldn't let us off the plane until we got all the series of injections."
And for Kathy, it could have been when she was a baby.
Kathy Stay, Victim: "I had a transfusion as a baby, and Hep C can be dormant for approximately 30 years."
People you wouldn't consider high risk for Hep C have it and are getting sick. That's why support groups are calling for more widespread routine screening and testing.
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Drug in New Hepatitis C Clinical Trial
http://biz.yahoo.com
BRISBANE, Australia, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital have treated the first two patients in a clinical trial designed to test a new strategy for defeating hepatitis C viral infection, one of the toughest infectious diseases in the modern world.
Implicit Bioscience's drug, oglufanide, which works as a regulator of the body's immune response, is being given to patients with chronic hepatitis viral infection.
"The drugs currently in use fail to control this disease in about one half of all patients," said Dr. Ian Frazer, Implicit's Chief Scientific Officer. "So there is a compelling need for new and better therapies, and we hope that oglufanide may control or reverse the suppression of the immune system which the hepatitis virus uses to defeat our normally healthy defences."
Dr. Frazer is well known as the co-inventor of the recently approved vaccine for papillomavirus which is designed to prevent cervical cancer.
Dr. Elizabeth Powell, who is the Principal Investigator for the trial which will be recruiting patients into 2007, welcomed the opportunity to study the action of oglufanide in her busy liver diseases clinic at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. "It is an important opportunity for patients to be involved in a new trial such as this, in which new treatment prospects are explored."
Oglufanide was originally developed to treat severe infectious disease in Russia (where it is a registered pharmaceutical), and was extensively studied in cancer clinical trials in the United States before being acquired by the privately-owned Brisbane biotech company Implicit Bioscience Pty Ltd in 2005. Oglufanide regulates the body's innate immune response to defeat invading germs and cancer cells. The drug is also under development by Implicit for severe respiratory diseases such as influenza (including pandemic disease) and ovarian cancer. Oglufanide has US Investigative New Drug status and Orphan Drug designation for cancer.
Source: Implicit Bioscience Inc.
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November 15th, 2006
Cookbook Sales Support Hep C Study
http://www.mlive.com
Book's creator targets cure, treatment
If you're looking for a holiday gift idea that also raises funds for a worthy cause, "Cooking Around the World'' is ready for purchase. Created by Ann Arborite Debbie Green, the cookbook's proceeds help fund Hepatitis C research at the University of Michigan.
The book's 500 some recipes are nicely organized into courses, and within those, main ingredient, making it easy to find a main dish beef recipe, for example. There are handy charts for feeding a crowd and roasting meat, as well as plenty of places to keep notes.
"Cooking Around the World'' is $15 (shipping is $3), although amounts given over the cost of the book are tax deductible.
To get a copy, visit www.hepcfund.org/Cookbook.htm or call Green at 734-665-3395.
Green also will be selling the book at the Winter Crafts and More Fair at Pittsfield Elementary School (2543 Pittsfield Blvd.) on Friday, 5:30-8 p.m. She will be at the Alternative Holiday Fair on Sunday, Dec. 3, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 512 E. Huron, Ann Arbor.
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Interaction Between Lymph and Liver Cells May Affect Immune Response
http://www.sciencedaily.com
A new study on the ability of liver cells to interact with T cells (lymph cells that play a role in regulating the immune response) found that such interactions do occur and demonstrated the mechanism by which they may take place. The results may help explain the altered immune responses that occur with aging and other conditions and may be useful in developing therapies for viral hepatitis and autoimmune diseases.
The results of this study appear in the November 2006 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Hepatology is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The liver possesses an unusual ability to stimulate immune tolerance, possibly due to its distinctive architecture that allows T cells normally activated in the lymph system to become activated by liver cells. Normally, endothelial cells that line blood vessels form a physical barrier that prevents naïve (unactivated) T cells from accessing surrounding tissue; these cells must typically be activated by specialized cells known as professional antigen presenting cells (APCs) before they are able to migrate across the endothelium and interact with organ cells. Recent studies have shown that the liver is an exception in that liver cells may be able to act as APCs, activating T cells independently of the lymph system, a process which makes them less efficient. However, the question remains as to how T cells can cross the endothelial barrier to interact with liver cells.
A collaborative work between Alessandra Warren and David Le Couteur of the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing (CERA), Concord RG Hospital and Patrick Bertolino of the Centenary Institute, University of Sydney, Australia, has led to the first study investigating the interactions between lymphocytes (T cells), liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) and hepatocytes (liver cells) using electron microscopy. LSECs are highly specialized endothelial cells that line the walls of hepatic sinusoid cells (gossamer-like structures that form the rich capillary network of the liver) and are perforated by fenestrations, or openings. The researchers hypothesized that the fenestrations could provide a portal through which liver cells and T cells could interact or that the interaction could take place across gaps between LSECs.
The study was conducted using mice whose livers had been injected with lymphocytes. The mouse livers were examined with two types of electron microscopy. Analysis of the images showed a large number of intrahepatic lymphocytes (IHLs) that had extensions similar to the dimensions of the fenestrations of the LSECs. These extensions were seen within the fenestrations and were observed to be in contact with minute projections on liver cells (hepatocyte microvilli). There were no observable gaps between LSECs and hepatocyte microvilli did not seem to interact with circulating lymphocytes. Further investigation showed that naïve T cells displayed the same extensions as IHLs and were also able to interact with liver cells through LSEC fenestrations. The authors propose the term "trans-endothelial hepatocyte-lymphocyte interactions" (TEHLI) to describe these interactions.
The discovery of TEHLI is the first demonstration by electron microscopy of the interaction between naïve T cells and liver cells in a living organism, which shows that the liver is an exception to the rule that T cells need to be activated by professional APCs in order to cross the endothelial barrier, and that hepatocytes can function as APCs. In fact, this T cell activation in the liver during early hepatitis C infection may contribute to the impaired immune response seen in chronic hepatitis C.
"As well as providing insight into the normal immune system, our observations might have implications for liver conditions associated with altered LSEC morphology and in particular those conditions associated with loss of fenestrations such as cirrhosis and old age," the authors conclude. "We have shown [in previous studies] that old age is associated with dramatic reductions in the fenestrations of LSECs therefore the altered immune responses of older people might in part be mechanistically linked to reduced opportunity for TEHLI in old age."
In an accompanying editorial in the same issue, Erin F. McAvoy and Paul Kubes of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada note that although the authors did not observe any interaction between hepatocyte microvilli and circulating lymphocytes, it is possible that this type of transient interaction is difficult to capture using electron microscopy. They suggest that the hepatocyte microvilli could function as a rapid screen for circulating lymphocytes, which might then decide to adhere and start the TEHLI process. "The notion that naïve T lymphocytes are capable of directly interacting with hepatocytes contradicts the dogma that naïve T cells cannot gain access to peripheral non-lymphoid tissues," the authors state, adding that the study furthers the notion that liver cells may be involved in hepatic immune tolerance. "Like any good study," they conclude, "the work of Warren et al., answers important questions but also raises some new and intriguing areas for further exploration."
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Stealing from the Dead: Part Two
http://www.wthr.com
Sandra Chapman/Eyewitness News
Local hospitals and surgeons warned Indiana patients to get tested in the wake of a nationwide tissue implant scare.
Now 13 Investigates uncovers the state's first case connecting stolen - recalled cadaver tissue - to a patient infected with a life-threatening disease.
William Thomas shakes his head at the thought of his new-found diagnosis. "Everyday it's tough, it's tough. It's like a death sentence, it really is," he said.
It all started in 2004, a truck rollover left him banged up and his neck snapped, requiring spinal fusion surgery. One year after undergoing the knife at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, multiple tests reveal 52-year-old William Thomas contracted a potentially life-threatening disease. He can still hear the doctor's words.
"We don't know what stage you're in, but you've tested positive for Hepatitis C," he remembered.
Prior to his surgery, blood tests showed no trace of the chronic liver disease. It wasn't until months later, in October 2005, that he learned the batch of tissue used to repair his neck was part of a gruesome nationwide scandal and recall.
According to the FDA, the tissue may not have been properly screened.
"I said, 'Oh, my God. You mean to tell me they got bodies, cadaver parts that wasn't even screened or anything? And I might be one that's contaminated?' Oh man, I can't believe this."
Thomas is not alone. Eyewitness News confirmed dozens of central Indiana patients also received letters urging them to get tested. Despite FDA claims that the risk of contracting HIV, Hepatitis, or Syphilis are low, patients live in daily fear, and now for good reason. William Thomas is the first Indiana patient under the recall to test positive.
Another concerned implant patient is speaking out but wants his identity concealed.
"Just knowing that that possibility exists, it's utterly depressing," the patient told Eyewitness News.
William Thomas wonders how this could happen. He thought the materials were supposed to be sterile.
Prosecutors in New York blame a group of unscrupulous funeral directors thousands of miles away from Indiana.
In a 122-count indictment obtained by Eyewitness News, four principal defendants are accused of the running a harvesting ring, forging donor consent forms, changing the ages of the dead and their official causes of death.
The four men charged are Michael Matromarino, Joseph Nicelli, Lee Cruceta and Christopher Aldorasi.
William Thomas says the case is unreal. "I can't believe anybody human would do anybody like that," he said.
Just weeks ago, seven New York area funeral directors pleaded guilty to taking bone and tissue from potentially diseased cadavers and selling it to tissue banks across the country. They even raided the body of former Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke, who died of lung cancer. He was 95.
The recalled tissue and bone was allegedly funneled to Biomedical Tissue Services in New Jersey, then sold to distributors like the Blood and Tissue Bank of Central Texas, Life Cell Corporation in New Jersey, the Lost Mountain Tissue Bank in Georgia, and Tutogen Medical and Regeneration Technologies, both in Florida.
Regeneration Technologies is the same Florida-based tissue supplier for Indy's largest and most trusted hospitals. It's the same vendor named in William Thomas' case - an alarming discovery considering the same batch of tissue was distributed for use in other surgeries.
"If William was infected from that tissue, then it would make all the sense in the world the other recipients of that tissue also have been infected," said Indianapolis attorney Richard Shevitz. Shevitz, who works for the law firm Cohen and Malaad, represents the Indiana patients who received the questionable tissue in a nationwide class action lawsuit.
The firm also filed a separate case on behalf of William Thomas.
"They said, 'We think the risk is very low, but we don't know.' And I think if you're William Thomas or the other patients the most important part of that sentence is, 'but we don't know,'" Shevitz told Eyewitness News. "This industry cries out for greater oversight."
Victims like William Thomas cry silent tears over the callous disregard. He agrees it's a case of profits over people.
"They got paid. They got big money off of that, you know. It's a joke to them. I don't think they considered at any time about anybody's life. As long as they were making money, they didn't care."
William Thomas faces months of treatment similar to chemotherapy.
Regeneration Technologies refused comment, but claims it's cleansing process destroys contaminants.
The tissue recall involves patients who had surgeries between September 2004 and 2005. So far 300 patients nationwide are suing.
The FDA has launched a new tissue safety task force to increase public confidence. Properly collected and screened tissue is a critical component in healthcare. It's used in a variety of reconstructive surgeries.
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November 17th, 2006
Timothea Beckerman, R&B Singer, Dies
http://www.upi.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- New Orleans rhythm and blues singer Timothea Beckerman died Tuesday in New York of complications from hepatitis C at age 55.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on Beckerman, who spent her final years raising awareness for hepatitis C, which destroys the liver. Beckerman was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1999 and subsequently founded Sirens to Wail, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increased awareness of the disease and support for those already afflicted.
Beckerman released her first single, "Teenage Prayer," in 1966 at age 14 after working the same bar circuit as Earl King, Irma Thomas and Aaron Neville.
During her career, Beckerman sang at Dorothy's Medallion Lounge and Tipitina's, among other prominent New Orleans venues. She recorded her first full-length CD, "Twisted Funky & Blue" in 1993.
During her final days, Beckerman stayed with friends in Florida and North Carolina after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Her last move was to New York, where she died at New York Presbyterian Hospital, the Times-Picayune reported.
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Parents in Xinjiang Drop Discrimination Suit
http://www.ft.com
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
An attempt to sue authorities in China's northwestern Xinjiang region over discrimination against children infected with the Hepatitis B virus has foundered after parents dropped the case under what activists say was heavy pressure from local officials.
The failure of the lawsuit highlights the difficulties faced by Chinese who seek to challenge local authorities in the courts, even in cases where officials appear to be defying national policy.
Parents of seven Hepatitis B-infected children recently expelled by a top school in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, sued city education authorities to compel them to allow the children to resume their studies.
The children were among a group of 19 expelled students despite a national ban on discrimination against the estimated 120m Chinese who carry the Hepatitis B virus, which is mainly transmitted at birth, through sexual contact, or by use of contaminated needles.
China's health ministry says carriers can live, work and study normal, but Urumqi officials have defended the expulsions as necessary to protect other pupils and have banned the local student-led health education group that first publicised the case.
"The families of the seven pupils involved in the lawsuit came under pressure from local government departments to withdraw it," said Lu Jun, a health activist and organiser of a popular website for Hepatitis B carriers.
Some parents had been taken to local police stations and told to put their seal on pre-prepared forms applying for the lawsuit to be withdrawn, and some who refused had been subjected to round-the-clock close surveillance, Mr Lu said.
Another person familiar with the case also said harassment by local authorities had forced the families to drop the suit.
Court officials and Xinjiang police declined to comment. The families of the expelled pupils could not be reached yesterday.
Zhang Yuanxin, a lawyer representing the families, declined to comment on the treatment of the plaintiffs.
However, he said he had been ordered not to make contact with his clients and had only heard about the withdrawal of the lawsuit when informed by the district court.
The expulsions were a disaster for pupils who had won coveted subsidised boarding places at the Urumqi No. 15 Middle School but have since had to return to home villages and towns with vastly inferior educational facilities.
Mr Zhang said the lawsuit had offered the possibility of an independent review of local authorities' judgement of the threat posed by Hepatitis B. "Without a clear verdict, I think similar cases will continue to happen in Xinjiang," he said.
Activists say prejudice against virus carriers has grown in recent years amid confusion about how it is transmitted and widespread advertising of Hepatitis B treatments which has stoked public fears about the disease.
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