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Barry Tingle's life took a gut-wrenching turn six years ago with a routine visit to the doctor. Lab tests showed he was infected with hepatitis C. Over decades, the virus had silently wreaked havoc on Tingle's largest and, in many ways, most complex internal organ, his liver. Tingle, now 46 years old, needs a liver transplant to live. But he faces life-and-death conflicts. His disease is emotionally devastating for his family, but without family support, he wouldn't even be considered for a liver transplant. He's been financially crippled, but he must keep paying for insurance to cover the cost of...

EDITORIAL OBSERVER Thirteen million Americans have been convicted of felonies and spent time in prison. The prison system now releases an astonishing 650,000 people each year - more than the population of Boston or Washington. In city after city, newly released felons return to a handful of neighborhoods where many households have some prison connection. The so-called prison ZIP codes have more in common than large populations of felons or children who grow up visiting their mothers and fathers in jail. These neighborhoods are also public health disaster areas and epicenters of blood borne diseases like hepatitis C and AIDS....

It's adios to Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurants. The remaining 66 Chi-Chi's nationwide closed Sunday, after a long decline in business and last year's outbreak of hepatitis A at the Beaver Valley Mall location that killed four people and sickened about 660 others. While a supply of Mexican-grown green onions -- and not the restaurant's food-handling practices -- eventually was identified as the source, the Beaver location and the chain in general failed to survive the national publicity. The Chi-Chi's in Beaver, Pleasant Hills and Hempfield were the last three in the Pittsburgh area. "They had their base core of customers who...

Get Behind Celebrating Anal Sex Month SAN FRANCISCO (Wireless Flash) -- Here's a holiday we can all get behind: August is "National Anal Sex Month." For the last three years, the Good Vibrations sex toy shop in San Francisco has celebrated August as "Anal Sex month" because, as spokeswoman Niki Khanna says, "the month has a lot of A's." Khanna believes having a whole month dedicated to anal sex means people aren't as touchy about the subject as in years past. However, she says the big challenge is convincing people that the activity doesn't "...have to involve penetration. Some people...

Week of June 19, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 25 , p. 397 Hepatitis C drugs are less effective in black patients Nathan Seppa Standard drugs for hepatitis C virus are less likely to knock out the infection in black patients than in whites, finds a study in the May 27 New England Journal of Medicine. Hepatitis C is a liver ailment that afflicts roughly 4 million people in the United States. It often goes unnoticed until it causes cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer. Researchers gave two antiviral drugs, peginterferon alpha-2b and ribavirin, for 11 months, to 81 black...

The head nurse at a cancer center where the nation's largest hepatitis C outbreak began has lost her license. Linda Prochaska was the head nurse for Dr. Tahir Javed, who last year admitted using unsanitary practices at his Fremont Cancer Clinic. The clinic used the same saline bag and syringes on multiple patients, according to court documents. At least 99 of his patients at the clinic contracted hepatitis C between March 2000 and December 2001, including one who died. Attorney General Jon Bruning said Monday that the state had revoked Prochaska's license. The state revoked Javed's license last year. He...

Nearly 3,000 CCISD students are behind on their shots - mostly the second hepatitis A vaccination - and if parents don't meet a two-week deadline, their kids could have to stay home. Parents and students faced a similar deadline in January, when about 800 students didn't get their vaccinations in time. Mayra Beltran/Caller-TimesMaria Gamez, Coles Elementary School nurse, notifies parents about immunization deadlines. Gamez says most of her work to get students immunized involves reminding parents, many of whom she knows at Coles. Parents find themselves again facing a deadline because the district requires a second hepatitis A vaccination six...

Bankruptcy judge allows hepatitis lawsuit against Chi-Chi's Attorneys for a man who needed a liver transplant after he allegedly got hepatitis A from eating at a Chi-Chi's restaurant filed an amended federal lawsuit Wednesday naming the restaurant chain as a defendant. Attorneys for Richard and Linda Miller of Beaver County were able to file the amended complaint because a bankruptcy judge issued an order earlier Wednesday allowing the claim against Louisville, Ky.-based Chi-Chi's to go forward. The Millers filed their initial lawsuit in December naming four produce companies alleged to have supplied the restaurant. The new complaint filed in...

Doctors warn of death toll from 'silent epidemic' of hepatitis C By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor 01 January 2004 Hospital specialists criticised the Government yesterday for failing to act to curb the spread of hepatitis C, a lethal blood-borne virus. The silent epidemic of hepatitis C is officially estimated to have infected 200,000 people in the UK - four times as many as HIV - and more than 100 people are being infected each week. It is already the main reason for liver transplants and is predicted to be killing more people than Aids by 2020, yet only a quarter...

Support weak for Hep C measureObscurity hurts lawmakers' efforts By KAREN DILLON The Kansas City Star A bill in Congress to help educate the American public about hepatitis C faces one big snag: The public isn't educated enough about hepatitis C to support it. And without a strong lobby for the bill, its fate is shaky, say lawmakers and activists. “This bill may really need public support to get passed because this isn't a popular topic,” said Cherri Branson, counsel for Rep. Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat who will help introduce the bill in the House next week....

Posted on Sun, Nov. 09, 2003 HEPATITIS C: SILENT ALARM By KAREN DILLON and MIKE McGRAW 2003 The Kansas City Star Michael Douglas, a Kansas City truckdriver, got it during an operation. South Carolina technician Dale Muir got it while inspecting used catheters. Teresa Cox, who works for a Kansas City radio station, got it from a transfusion while giving birth. These Americans, and at least 4 million more, have been infected with the hepatitis C virus. Ten thousand or more of them will die from it this year -- about 35 times the toll from last year's much-publicized...

Hepatitis A Cases at High School May Be Related to Chi-Chi's Outbreak The Associated Press HOOKSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - High school students who have tested positive for hepatitis A may be the first people to contract the virus from victims of an outbreak at a nearby Mexican restaurant. State health officials said they will know Monday or Tuesday whether the latest cases, involving an unspecified number of high school students, are the first secondary cases tied to the largest known hepatitis A outbreak, which was confirmed last month at a Chi-Chi's restaurant about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Health officials...

U.S. green onion hepatitis linked to Mexico-FDA WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal health investigators have determined that a deadly outbreak of hepatitis A among restaurant diners in Tennessee, Georgia and Pennsylvania was caused by green onions produced in Mexico, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday. More than 500 people were infected in the outbreak and three died. The hepatitis A virus is transmitted in raw or undercooked food that has been contaminated with the feces of a person with the disease. Its symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea and fever, and the virus can be fatal to those...

What we owe to NAFTA Posted: December 1, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Around Oct. 6, 38-year-old auto mechanic Jeff Cook decided to treat his wife and two daughters to dinner at Chi-Chi's in Beaver Valley Mall outside Pittsburgh. Within three weeks, Cook, suffering from acute liver failure, was fighting for his life. To save him, surgeons had a new liver flown in. They failed. Jeff Cook became, writes Lydia Polgreen of the New York Times, "the first person to die in what federal health officials say is the biggest food-borne outbreak of hepatitis A in...

MEXICALI, Mexico -- U.S. inspectors are in Mexico to visit onion exporters following a hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania that killed three people and sickened more than 600 others. A Food and Drug Administration official said the inspectors are checking to see if conditions are up to U.S. standards. Contaminated green onions from Mexico are blamed for the outbreak among people who ate at a suburban Pittsburgh Chi-Chi's restaurant, as well as smaller outbreaks in Tennessee and Georgia. The official said inspectors want to make sure that no more contaminated food is being shipped. Mexico has shut down four green...

Hepatitis C's time bomb ticks Researchers fear ultimate toll may surpass AIDS By Peter Gorner Tribune science reporter December 1, 2003 A stealthy enemy is lurking inside the bodies of millions of Americans that some medical experts fear may prove as devastating as AIDS. These people feel perfectly healthy, unaware that a virus is quietly destroying their liver, cell by cell. "The first sign I got was two years ago when I crashed with end-stage liver disease," said Robert Kolling, 55, of Bolingbrook. "I'm one of the lucky ones. I received a liver transplant a year ago." The virus that...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. As for many other people in South Mississippi, shrimp means a lot to Brian Gollott and his family. His grandfather started C.F. Gollott & Son Seafood Inc., in Biloxi in 1932 and passed it down through the generations. Now, Gollott and his four brothers are in the business, as is the rest of his family. Shrimp is their livelihood. But Gollott worries that the trend of increased foreign trade and shrimp imports could steamroll his business into the ground. "I'm concerned that my family business cannot compete with foreign countries," he...

<p>The hepatitis A outbreak at a Beaver County restaurant is just the latest, and perhaps most serious, example of a growing number of produce-related outbreaks that some view as an indictment of government regulators.</p> <p>There were 76 food-borne-illness outbreaks stemming from produce in 2000, and together, they caused 3,981 illnesses, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C., group. In 1997, there were just 29 produce-related outbreaks with 2,449 illnesses.</p>

We now know the recent deadly outbreak of hepatitis A was caused by contaminated green onions from Mexico. It took the Federal Drug Administration far too long to make that determination and to link the Pennsylvania outbreak to earlier outbreaks in Tennessee and Georgia. The U.S. is vulnerable to disease crossing our borders. Every day, destructive organisms that threaten our health and our food supply arrive undetected. Gaps in border controls and inadequate inspections leave us vulnerable to devastating viruses, bacteria, pests - and, in the potentially worst case, terrorism. More than two years after Sept. 11, the FDA inspects...

<p>SAN DIEGO -- Mexican green onions under investigation by federal authorities were cleaned with contaminated water and packed in dirty ice, a top Mexican government official said Thursday.</p> <p>Despite those violations, Mexican authorities have found no evidence the imported scallions -- grown at four different farms -- were tainted with the hepatitis A virus, said Javier Trujillo Arriaga, director of the Agriculture Department's division of health, safety and quality.</p>

<p>MEXICALI VALLEY, Mexico -- Jorge Vidales and his wife, Estela, work side by side in the fields here from September through May. The couple, both 30, have been harvesting green onions for a living since they were 15.</p> <p>Most days they get up around 6, get breakfast for their seven children, then get on a truck that takes them to the fields. Their 14-year-old daughter, Alma Rosa, takes care of Gustavo, 3, and Alex, 18 months. The other children -- Hector, 8, Antonio, 10, Jorge Luis, 12, and Arturo, 13 -- attend a nearby school. Estela Valladores de Vidales is seven months pregnant with their eighth.</p>

Sales of Mexican Green Onions Plummet After U.S. Hepatitis Outbreak Traced to Northwestern Mexico The Associated Press SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico Nov. 25 — Sales of Mexican green onions plunged after a hepatitis outbreak in the United States was traced to northwestern Mexico, forcing farmers in this valley to defend the safety of their produce and find ways to stay afloat financially. Many U.S. distributors are slashing orders, even though it hasn't been proved that Mexico was to blame for the outbreak. Green onions are big business in the area, making up 90 percent of the fruit and vegetables...

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico — Sales of Mexican green onions have dropped dramatically after a U.S. hepatitis outbreak was traced to northwestern Mexico, forcing farmers in this valley to defend the safety of their produce and find ways to stay afloat financially. Many U.S. distributors are slashing orders, even though it hasn't been proved that Mexico was to blame for the outbreak. "We don't have the most sophisticated equipment in the world, but we take a lot of care with hygiene," green onion producer Salvador Navarro said. Green onions are big business here, making up 90 percent of the...

Allegheny County health officials said Tuesday they will conduct genetic tests to determine if two new hepatitis A patients contracted the same virus that killed three and sickened more than 600 patrons and workers at a Beaver County restaurant. The Allegheny County Health Department wants to find out if the two patients are the outbreak's first secondary cases, department spokesman Guillermo Cole said. Officials have confirmed that at least 615 people contracted hepatitis A from green onions served in mild salsa and chili con queso at the Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant in Beaver Valley Mall. The outbreak is one of the...

Hepatitis Cases Spur Mexico Inspections Wednesday November 26, 2003 3:16 AM By LISA J. ADAMS Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico has closed four green onion growers - including three owned by U.S. companies - and started a new inspection plan sooner than planned following an outbreak of hepatitis linked to the vegetable from northwestern Mexico. The moves should boost consumer confidence in Mexican produce and will aid growers by improving the image of their crops at home and abroad, Javier Trujillo, director of the Agriculture Department's division of health, safety and quality, said in an interview. ``It...

<p>MEXICALI VALLEY, Mexico -- The virus that rode hundreds of miles north of here in the folds of green onions is just now making its way back in slow ripples of bad news.</p> <p>For Antonio Barrera, 77, it came in the form of the sudden appearance of Mexican agricultural inspectors in the fields where he works harvesting green onions. Rancho Madero, which sits on Kilometer 28 of Lazaro Cardenas Road, is one of dozens of large onion-growing farms in the Mexicali Valley.</p>

ATLANTA -- A North Carolina outbreak of hepatitis A probably came from green onions, which also have been blamed for outbreaks linked to restaurants in Georgia, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to a preliminary state health report. The Georgia Division of Public Health found that the hepatitis A strain that sickened 16 people in North Carolina was the same as the one that afflicted 259 people in Georgia and likely came from the same source. The Georgia outbreak had previously been traced to green onions shipped from Mexico, and the report said a single Atlanta Farmers' Market distributor provided green onions...

<p>The investigation into the nation's largest hepatitis A outbreak now is focusing on how green onions became contaminated and how well public health officials responded to the outbreak, state and federal officials said Saturday.</p> <p>Authorities announced Friday that raw green onions in mild salsa and chili con queso at a Beaver County Mexican restaurant were the source of the outbreak that sickened 605 people as of yesterday. Three people have died, including one man who took acetaminophen, never knowing his flu-like symptoms were really hepatitis A. Hepatitis A causes the liver to swell, and acetaminophen can damage the liver.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has halted imports of Mexican green onions suspected of causing an outbreak of hepatitis A that has sickened more than 500 people in Pennsylvania, a Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) official told Reuters on Wednesday. FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester Crawford said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Friday will release an update on the outbreak, including the food source that has caused at least three deaths and where it originated. Health officials believe Mexican green onions served at a Chi-Chi's restaurant were the source of the Pennsylvania outbreak. Recent cases...

According to a press conference by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health, the cause of the Hepatitis A outbreak, that has so far infected 575 people and caused 3 deaths, came from green onions. All those infected ate at a Chi-Chi's restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall located in Center Township, PA.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/thrive/2003/nov/15/111509066.html Surging

The ongoing outbreak of hepatitis A near Pittsburgh, the largest reported in the USA, has focused attention on efforts to protect an increasingly international food supply. More than 500 people who ate at a Chi-Chi's restaurant in early October fell ill with hepatitis A, an infection that attacks the liver. Symptoms may not appear for up to 50 days following exposure, so health officials fear more illnesses could emerge in the coming weeks. Three people have died. Nearly 9,000 people, including people who ate or worked at the now-closed restaurant and their families, have been given immune globulin shots, which...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has halted imports of Mexican green onions suspected of causing an outbreak of hepatitis A that has sickened more than 500 people in Pennsylvania, a Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) official told Reuters on Wednesday. FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester Crawford said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Friday will release an update on the outbreak, including the food source that has caused at least three deaths and where it originated. Health officials believe Mexican green onions served at a Chi-Chi's restaurant were the source of the Pennsylvania outbreak. Recent cases...

WASHINGTON -- Consumers should fully cook green onions as a precaution against hepatitis A, U.S. health officials said Saturday as they investigated the cause of an outbreak that has struck more than 500 people in Pennsylvania. Raw or lightly cooked green onions were linked to cases of the liver disease in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia in September, but the source of the Pennsylvania outbreak is still unknown, the Food and Drug Administration said. Hepatitis A is usually mild but can cause fever, exhaustion, vomiting, abdominal pain and in rare cases death. As of Saturday, 510 cases of the illness...

<p>State officials are investigating whether additional Beaver County restaurants may be involved in the growing hepatitis A outbreak and are urging restaurants in three counties to beef up sanitation efforts and report any workers ill with flu-like symptoms.</p> <p>The number of people confirmed to have contracted hepatitis A after visiting or working at the Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall rose to 130 Thursday. Four of the victims are employees, according to the state health department.</p>

Nation's Biggest Known Outbreak of Hepatitis Kills 3, Causes Panic in Greater Pittsburgh Area The Associated Press PITTSBURGH Nov. 15 — The nation's biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A is causing such a panic that people are lining up by the thousands for antibody shots and no longer eating out. A third person died Friday and nearly 500 others who ate at a Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant have fallen ill in the outbreak that has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send assistance. Health investigators are focusing on whether contaminated produce perhaps scallions caused the outbreak at the...

PITTSBURGH - A third person died Friday and nearly 500 others who ate at a Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant have fallen ill in the biggest known outbreak of hepatitis A in U.S. history, making people so scared they are lining up by the thousands for vaccinations and no longer eating out. Health investigators are focusing on whether contaminated produce — perhaps scallions — caused the outbreak at the restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. "We're very concerned. It's very serious and we've sent a team of people out there to assist," said David Daigle, a...

The hepatitis A outbreak linked to the Chi-Chi's restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall has claimed a second life, as the number of confirmed cases continues to skyrocket. Dineen Wieczorek, 51, of Hopewell Township died Wednesday evening in the Cleveland Clinic of complications from the hepatitis A virus, her husband, Walter, said Wednesday. "It's a complete shock," Walter Wieczorek said. "It just all happened so fast." In addition to Wieczorek's death, the state Department of Health said it now has identified 410 people with hepatitis A linked to the Center Township restaurant, making it the biggest outbreak linked to a...

A 38-year-old Aliquippa man infected with hepatitis A died last night at UPMC Presbyterian -- the first fatality stemming from an outbreak that has been traced to a Beaver County restaurant. The death came as the number of reported cases rose to 185, and state officials worked to prevent those who have been sickened from inadvertently causing future outbreaks.

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More than 100 people have been hospitalized in the past two days with symptoms of hepatitis A after drinking contaminated water in an eastern Ukrainian town, bringing the total number affected by the outbreak above 400, officials said Tuesday. Hepatitis A is a highly infectious liver disease typically contracted by eating or drinking food or fluids contaminated by traces of fecal material. Symptoms include fatigue, fever, nausea and jaundice. Israel has born the brunt of recent scathing Amnesty International reports and was placed on a US State Department's black list, a double punch which inaugurated the fight against trafficking. "The...

Genetic "smart bomb" knocks out hepatitis   19:00 20 April 03   NewScientist.com news service   Human liver cells harbouring the hepatitis C virus can be selectively targeted and destroyed by a new gene therapy approach, according to new research. The key is a genetically-engineered "suicide" gene, delivered aboard a harmless virus, which is triggered only when it enters a hepatitis-infected cell. The two current treatments for the debilitating liver disease - alpha interferon and ribavarin - can reduce the level of infection, say researchers, but the virus usually comes back. The new gene therapy approach could one day "offer the potential of...

By Amanda GardnerHealthScoutNews Reporter WEDNESDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthScoutNews) -- A new drug shows promise in halting liver damage in people suffering from chronic hepatitis B as well as existing drugs with fewer drawbacks.   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has already approved the drug, adefovir dipivoxil. However, studies supporting its effectiveness had not been fully published until now, says Dr. Patrick Marcellin, lead author of one of two studies on adefovir that appear in the Feb. 27 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites). "It's a pretty exciting step forward,"...

Charges laid in blood probeBy DARREN YOURK and ANDRÉ PICARD Globe and Mail Update Wednesday, November 20 – Online Edition, Posted at 5:39 PM ESTThe RCMP has laid criminal charges against the Canadian Red Cross Society, four doctors and a pharmaceutical company after a five-year investigation into the tainted-blood scandal of the 1980s.At a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, the RCMP Blood Task Force announced charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm under Section 221 of the Criminal Code of Canada, charges of common nuisance by endangering the public under Section 180 of the Criminal Code of Canada, as well as a charge...

TORONTO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Police laid criminal charges against four doctors, the Canadian Red Cross Society and a U.S. pharmaceutical company on Wednesday after a five-year investigation into the country's tainted blood tragedy of the 1980s. During that decade, thousands of blood transfusion recipients in Canada contracted the AIDS and hepatitis C viruses from contaminated blood and blood products. Many of them have died. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the accused failed to inform the public about the risk of HIV and hepatitis infections from unscreened blood and also failed to test donated blood for the hepatitis C...

Health officials say nurse reused large syringe 2002-10-11 By Jim Killackey The Oklahoman A nurse anesthetist who might have exposed hundreds of Oklahomans to hepatitis C used a large syringe and needle over and over again to inject small doses into patients' intravenous lines, the state Health Department said Thursday. James C. Hill used the improper and dangerous practices involving syringes, needles and IV portals on patients' hands or arms at Norman Regional Hospital and at two Oklahoma City pain management clinics, state epidemiologist Dr. Mike Crutcher said. "By my understanding, this is the biggest outbreak of hepatitis C that...

Health Canada's mandatory new inspection program has detected widespread problems in sperm banks, including a failure to meet government testing requirements, and donor semen that was erroneously released from quarantine. Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act also found that one Toronto clinic allowed an overage donor -- likely exposed to Hepatitis B -- to provide semen to a same-sex couple. The Whitehorse Medical Clinic flunked its June 12 inspection and is the only clinic suspended from using its semen supply. With one exception, inspectors found the clinic kept no records detailing which semen was used in patients. "They...

China Backs Establishment of Palestinian State China reaffirmed its support for the establishment of a Palestinian State on Thursday, saying that without the restoration of the legal rights of the Palestinian people, it would be impossible to achieve peace and security in the Middle East. Visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang made these remarks during his meeting with Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat at Arafat's badly-damaged compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Arafat expressed his gratitude toward the Chinese government and Chinese President Jiang Zemin for sending Yang to visit Palestine at the hardest time...

UK Urged to Compensate Hemophiliacs for InfectionTue Jun 18, 2002; 1:29 PM ET By Richard WoodmanLONDON (Reuters Health) - The British government was urged on Tuesday to make £52.6 million available annually for people with haemophilia who were infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood products. A report from the Haemophilia Society said that from 1969 to 1985, 95% of people with haemophilia were treated with blood products carrying a high risk of infection with hepatitis C. As a result, 2,829 haemophiliacs alive in the country today are infected with the virus. Haemophilia is an inherited blood-clotting disorder. Those with...

Inquiry plea to minister May 15 2002By Louella Houldcroft, The Journal Haemophiliacs from the North-East are today due to lobby the Government for a public inquiry into how infected blood products were allowed to be used in the NHS. Haemophilia Action UK, based in Jesmond, together with the Manor House Group from Birmingham, will today meet with Public Health Minister Yvette Cooper. They hope to persuade her to reopen investigations into how 4,500 haemo-philiacs became infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Led by Newcastle's Carol Grayson, whose partner Peter Longstaff is infect- ed with both viruses, the group wants all...