Panel to Probe Why One Million
Exposed to Hepatitis C
Source:
CNN Interactive, March 5,
1998
A Congressional panel will ask
health officials Thursday why an estimated one million Americans were
never told they were given Hepatitis C-infected blood.
The CDC [Center for Disease
Control] says, as a result, 300,000 were infected. Hepatitis C infects the
liver, causing fatigue, abdominal pain, cirrhosis, and even death. About
four million Americans have Hepatitis C. It's usually spread through
transfusions, IV drug use, and organ transplants. The FDA didn't develop a
test to screen for the disease until 1990.
Silent epidemic
House panel to conduct hearing on exposure to tainted blood
Source:
CNN Interactive, March 5,
1998
In
This Story:
WASHINGTON (CNN) ?
Surgeon General David Satcher will be one of the witnesses at a
congressional hearing on Thursday that will explore why U.S. citizens had
not been notified that they received blood contaminated with hepatitis C.
The House Government Reform and
Oversight Committee's human resources subcommittee will conduct the
hearing.
Former Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop and representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs
and the American Liver Foundation are scheduled to testify.
The hearing will focus on the
estimated 1 million Americans who received blood products contaminated
with hepatitis C before 1990, when a test was developed to screen for the
disease.
HHS missed an opportunity, critics
say
An estimated 300,000 Americans
are infected with hepatitis C as a result of these exposures, according to
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The purpose of the hearing is
to review the federal response to this problem," said U.S. Rep.
Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who chairs the subcommittee.
He said the government has
failed to notify those exposed by the blood, although the Food and Drug
Administration has considered it on seven different occasions. "We should
have taken action three years ago to notify people that they may, in fact,
have contracted hepatitis C."
Shays and other critics of the
Department of Health and Human Services are concerned that an opportunity
had been missed several years ago to notify people with hepatitis C
because it was thought that the disease was restricted to risk groups like
drug users.
HHS Secretary Donna Shalala
promised to make the notification a high priority. She wrote one health
expert as recently as January that it is her intent to reach as many
at-risk people possible.
Hepatitis C is called a silent
epidemic because many patients don't develop symptoms for decades. Many
people who test positive for hepatitis C have no symptoms at all. They
often find out when they are notified after a blood donation.
"We need to protect the safety
of the blood supply. We did a pathetic job previous to 1992 and our
committee had hearings to determine why so many people had contracted
HIV/AIDS. We learned that many had also contracted hepatitis C. The
difference is they don't know it," Shays said.
Hepatitis C is an infection of
the liver. Some people who contract the disease could develop cirrhosis
and require a liver transplant.
Symptoms include extreme
fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite and abdominal pain.
Treatment is with the drug
interferon, but it is successful less than 20 percent of the time,
according to researchers. A vaccine is more than 10 years away.
More than 4 million people in
the United States may be infected with hepatitis C.
Correspondents Dr. Steve
Salvatore and Jonathan Aiken contributed to this report.
Related stories:
Related sites:
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention
American Liver Foundation
Department of Veterans Affairs
Hep-C Alert
The Hepatitis Foundation
International
HepNet - The Hepatitis
Information Network
Hepatitis C
InfoCenter
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