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Appalachia gripped by hepatitis C epidemic, bracing for HIV
AP ^ | 6/4/15 | CLAIRE GALOFARO

Posted on 06/04/2015 4:05:03 AM PDT by markomalley

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To: markomalley

For those of use non-addicts who live in Appalachia-—no problemo.


21 posted on 06/04/2015 5:37:19 AM PDT by Rudder
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To: dmz
It’s very effective and the cost is closer to 80k.

Yes I stand corrected on the price. I was going by what I read at one time. That being said, I still don't want to see my tax dollars going to buy this for people who got it by knowingly engaging in foolish behavior (iv drug users specifically)

22 posted on 06/04/2015 5:47:54 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga
" We’re supposed to feel sorry for them and open up our wallets for another government program? "

No, quite to the contrary, these guys and their ruined lives ain't even the point. The point is they're a public health hazard for the rest of us.

(Hint: Do you go into public places and use a door handle to open a door? Do you go to the supermarket and put your hands on a shopping cart? Do you uh, maintain personal hygiene, and wash your hands every time?)

Yes, good, we all thought so... now guess what?

23 posted on 06/04/2015 6:27:53 AM PDT by OKSooner (Chamberlain at least loved his country, please don't insult his memory by comparing him to 0.)
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To: kearnyirish2
The 1950’s was the high water mark for the USA.
24 posted on 06/04/2015 6:36:28 AM PDT by Awgie (truth is always stranger than fiction)
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To: OKSooner
Do you go into public places and use a door handle to open a door? Do you go to the supermarket and put your hands on a shopping cart? Do you uh, maintain personal hygiene, and wash your hands every time

Got a news flash fer ya. You don't get hep C from these activities.

25 posted on 06/04/2015 6:40:41 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga

Okay, I stand corrected, but you seem not to have a problem with Hep A or Hep B, or just plain ol’ revulsion.


26 posted on 06/04/2015 6:47:49 AM PDT by OKSooner (Chamberlain at least loved his country, please don't insult his memory by comparing him to 0.)
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To: OKSooner

hep A and B have vaccines available. I have a problem with junkies getting any sort of tax dollars. Drug use is a lifestyle choice, not a disaster forced on someone by bad luck or bad genetics.


27 posted on 06/04/2015 7:42:19 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga
"hep A and B have vaccines available. I have a problem with junkies getting any sort of tax dollars. Drug use is a lifestyle choice, not a disaster forced on someone by bad luck or bad genetics. "

Okay. I'd never be the one to defend junkies getting tax dollars...

28 posted on 06/04/2015 7:46:39 AM PDT by OKSooner (Chamberlain at least loved his country, please don't insult his memory by comparing him to 0.)
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To: from occupied ga
Problem is in our system there are many ways for those individuals to use our tax dollars. If their poor lifestyle causes them to wind up in an ER they get treated and frequently admitted (as is required by law). Toxicology screens identify those active users but we still are required to treat. Just as bad are the chronic medical problems that can arise from past use of drugs which result in additional health care dollar expenditure. Chronic treatment with medications, evaluation for opportunistic infections in the case of HIV; treatment for hepatic failure in the case of Hepatitis C and evaluation and treatment for complications such as hyperammonemia. Even if Sovaldi and hepatic transplantation are not offered, a medical hospitalization can easily run into thousands dollars.

It would probably save more tax dollars trying to prevent this stuff in the first place... not that that has been successful either.

29 posted on 06/04/2015 8:31:34 AM PDT by NYorkerInHouston
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To: NYorkerInHouston
I'm aware of what you said, and I agree with it. None of this makes me any happier about paying for other peoples' bad choices. One particularly egregious example was about 8 years ago when I happened to be in Hopkins hospital and picked up one of their monthly newsletters. The lead article was about a welfare kid with two liver transplants who died waiting for the third because his momma didn't spend her money on the anti-rejection drugs. The thrust of the article was that the taxpayers should pay more for welfare kids so that their mommas could support their lifestyles and still pay for the anti-rejection drugs.

I was appalled for a number of reasons. First there is the taxpayer burden of the transplant procedure cost - about $300,000 each time if I remember correctly. Second and far more important is the availability of organs for transplantation. So that this crack baby and his momma could milk the system, two other people on the transplant list died. Two livers were wasted on a black ghetto rat who WAS A VERY POOR CANDIDATE FOR TRANSPLANT SURGERY BECAUSE OF LIFESTYLE and ended up dying anyway (fortunately before a third liver was wasted). Third because the author of the article thought the solution was to throw more money on dee baby momma - obviously a waste of skin.

A couple of months ago a black yout was killed when he wrecked a stolen car while fleeing from police. The ironic thing is that he was the recipient of a liver transplant that he should not have gotten. He was initially rejected because of his criminal lifestyle, but one of dee local revins made such a stink that he was maumaued on to the top of the list. Again what happens when politics determines who gets resources.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

30 posted on 06/04/2015 8:53:44 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga

“because of HEPA laws have no idea if they’re infected or not. “

You probably mean HIPPA.
HEPA is a filter on your vacuum cleaner.


31 posted on 06/04/2015 10:36:58 AM PDT by rhoda_penmark
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To: rhoda_penmark

Right - sorry about that


32 posted on 06/04/2015 10:49:29 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: markomalley

When I was young, if you contracted a Sexually Transmitted Disease, your Doctor was required to report it to the Local Health Department.

You were interviewed and anyone you had Sex with was contacted so they could receive Treatment, which kept STD’s at bay.

When the AIDS Epidemic hit, that went by the wayside because Liberals didn’t want to “label” AIDS as a primarily Gay Disease. PC over Public Health and we never looked back.

Oh yeah, I have actually talked to People who actually believe that Reagan is responsible for the AIDS Epidemic.


33 posted on 06/04/2015 10:50:52 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (Hillary, because it's time for a POTUS without a SCROTUS...)
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To: from occupied ga

Unfortunately, people who ten years ago may have been rock-solid conservatives are falling onto the lower class (through no fault of their own), and I suspect many have leaned left as a result. The lack of jobs (and the ripple effect where education won’t pay off) are killing a generation of young Americans; they see people twenty years older than them in jobs that are no longer available for the most part, and it rankles them.


34 posted on 06/04/2015 2:48:01 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Awgie

Financially it was, but it was an anomaly; we had the only surviving manufacturing base after WWII, and the GI Bill gave many a chance at higher education that would never have had it without it.


35 posted on 06/04/2015 2:49:06 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2
... for the most part, and it rankles them.

OK, but does that justify turning into a junkie? Don't get me wrong, I am fully libertarian on drugs, in that if you want to kill yourself via that route go for it, but likewise if you OD, I have exactly zero sympathy and I'm not willing to pay a cent to help you out of a hole that you dug for yourself. One (that I know of) of the people I went to HS with went that route, and talk about a whiney self pitying worthless a$$hole. I don't know what happened to him eventually. I do know that stuff would disappear when he was around.

36 posted on 06/05/2015 3:46:24 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga

I’m not a libertarian at all when it comes to drugs; I know that addicts will kill you for the money to get them (it isn’t “victimless”). I’m saying that they are self-medicating for depression/absolute hopelessness. Young people today are more accustomed to the Third World-style economy we have; other people who grew up surrounded by opportunity are watching their dreams fall apart as jobs disappear, destroying a way of life they had often studied and worked very hard to attain.

It is no accident that they are talking about installing a “jumper net” on the George Washington Bridge; the NYC metro area is ground zero for broken dreams. Countless people have been walking in front of trains and such for years now; they don’t believe it will ever get better.


37 posted on 06/05/2015 4:12:59 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: guyfromjrz

I wonder what drug they used before they started Oxycontin?


38 posted on 06/25/2015 7:14:31 PM PDT by cradle of freedom
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