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Have you been treated for hepatitis C virus (HCV) recently? If so, it may be time to get retested for the virus, according to a global meta-analysis presented at the 11th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2021). The analysis found that gay and bisexual men, also referred to as men who have sex with men (MSM), living with HIV had the highest rate of hepatitis C reinfection globally, regardless of injection drug use.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing cause of serious liver problems and liver-related death among people living with HIV now that hepatitis C can be cured, according to research presented at the 2019 International Liver Congress last week in Vienna. As highly effective treatments for hepatitis B and C lead to reduced mortality among people with HIV, “NAFLD is becoming an increasingly important cause of liver disease,” said presenter Zobair Younossi, MD, PhD, of Inova Fairfax Medical Campus in Falls Church, Virginia. In the future, he suggested, NAFLD could become the leading cause of liver disease in this...

I've noticed a lot of commercials about Hep C. The current one tells Baby Boomers to get tested and an earlier one was talking about a cure for Hep C. This is starting to sound like some government conspiracy. And, I'm not a doctor but I didn't think that a virus could be cured.

Patton Couch shook his head and clenched his teeth, recounting the night four years ago when he plucked a dirty needle from a pile at a flophouse and jabbed it into his scarred arm. He knew the odds; most of the addicts in the room probably had hepatitis C. "All I cared about was how soon and how fast I could get it in," he says. "I hated myself, it was misery. But when you're in the grips of it, the only way I thought I could escape it was one more time." Couch, 25 years old and one month...

he federal government spent a whopping $4.5 billion on costly new drugs to cure hepatitis C among Medicare patients last year, a steep price that is likely to keep growing, federal records show. Spending on the super-selling drugs – which can cost $1,000 a day – increased more than 15 times compared to the previous year, according to a report Monday by ProPublica.

A one-time associate of Osama Bin Laden died in New York on Friday while awaiting trial for allegedly plotting the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Abu Anas al-Libi, 50, was captured in Libya by U.S. commandos in Oct. 2013 and brought to New York where he was due to stand trial. He had been wanted for more than a decade and there was a $5 million reward for his arrest. Al-Libi had pleaded not guilty. The al Qaeda terror suspect has been in poor health and suffered liver disease as a result of hepatitis C, according...

Gilead Sciences’ new hepatitis C drug receives as much praise for its healing powers as it receives criticism of its price, $84,000 for 12 weeks. Those parallel storylines played out even further in a prominent scientific journal’s latest edition, published online over the weekend.

Former “Baywatch” beauty Pamela Anderson said she was gang-raped by seven boys in high school — including her then-boyfriend — and was also subjected to sexual molestation by a babysitter between the ages of 6 and 10. Ms. Anderson, speaking during the launch of her Pamela Anderson Foundation, said she was raped, too, at the age of 12 by a 25-year-old, NBC News reported. “My first boyfriend in grade nine decided it would be funny to gang-rape me, with six of his friends,” she said, NBC reported, citing a transcript of her speech that was posted on her foundation’s website....

Link only, Bloomberg...Costly new hepatitis C drugs from Gilead, Merck show near total cure rates

A New York veteran’s hospital may have exposed more than 700 of its patients with HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C by mistakenly reusing its insulin pens, which are used to inject diabetes patients with a hormone produced by the pancreas.

The New Hampshire hospital lab technician indicted last week for infecting 31 people with Hepatitis C might have infected "tens of thousands" of patients in at least 13 hospitals, ABC News has learned. David Kwiatkowski, a former lab technician at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire, had allegedly been stealing the Fentanyl syringes intended for patients, injecting his own arm and then refilling those empty syringes with another liquid-like saline, according to a statement from the United States Attorney's Office in New Hampshire. Since Kwiatkowski tested positive for Hepatitis C in June 2010, he passed it on to the hospital patients...

Contact: Daniela Hernandez dfh2101@columbia.edu 310-991-2391 Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health In a study to be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report the discovery of a novel hepatitis C-like virus in dogs. The identification and characterization of this virus gives scientists new insights into how hepatitis C in humans may have evolved and provides scientists renewed hope to develop a model system to study how it causes disease. The research was conducted at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the University...

Allman Brothers Band cofounder Gregg Allman underwent successful liver transplant surgery this morning, forcing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band to cancel its performance at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival at Chicago's Toyota Park on Saturday. The Derek Trucks Band will replace the Allmans on the lineup, which also includes Jeff Beck, John Mayer, B.B. King and Buddy Guy. Check out Rolling Stone's rundown of the Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Allman is being treated at Jacksonville, Florida's Mayo Clinic after battling Hepatitis C for several years. In 2007, the singer was advised that the damage to his...

SEATTLE - Timothy Garon's face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant. His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days. But Garon's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons. "I'm not angry, I'm not mad, I'm just confused," said Garon, lying in his hospital bed a few minutes after a doctor told him the hospital transplant...

How liver surgeries cut short patients’ lives By The Tribune-Review Sunday, March 9, 2008 Hundreds of patients each year undergo liver transplants when they don't need them, and possibly never will, a four-month Pittsburgh Tribune-Review investigation found. One in 10 of those patients dies when they could have lived longer without the transplant. The rest - all at the rock-bottom of waiting lists - must resign themselves to an early battle with the burdensome risks of anti-rejection drugs and complications that can follow: infections, cancers, kidney damage, and high blood sugar. What's worse, a third of those patients get the...

Over the years, I have thought about getting a tattoo. Surprising considering my fear of needles! lol I see them everywhere on every classs of person, I see the artwork vary from onr body to another.What causes someone to decide to have a tattoo. Is it cultural? Is it a fad? I am seriously thinking about it now. Any stories, suggestions? Thank you!

Steven Tyler has apparently been living on the edge more than he previously let on. In an interview with Access Hollywood set to air Tuesday night, Aerosmith's sinewy singer reveals that he has quietly been battling hepatitis C, a blood-borne infection that can potentially lead to fatal liver damage, including cirrhosis or liver cancer. Per the New York Daily News, the 58-year-old Tyler tells host Nancy O'Dell that he was diagnosed three years ago but had contracted hepatitis C several years earlier without manifesting any symptoms. He subsequently endured a year's worth of pills and injections containing the antiviral drug...

Dr. Roger Perrault The trial of the doctor at the centre of the tainted blood scandal is set to begin Monday after months of legal wrangling and delays. Dr. Roger Perrault, former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross, faces criminal charges for his alleged role in allowing hemophilia patients to receive tainted blood products in the 1980s and early 1990s. The incident is widely considered to be Canada's worst medical disaster of the last century. More than 1,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and as many as 20,000 contracted hepatitis C after receiving the blood. It's not...

HAMILTON (CP) - Tens of thousands of Canadians infected with AIDS or hepatitis C got an apology from the Canadian Red Cross on Monday after the charity pleaded guilty to distributing tainted blood in exchange for dropped criminal charges. "The Canadian Red Cross Society is deeply sorry for the injury and death caused to those who were infected . . . and for the suffering caused to families and loved ones of those who were harmed," Dr. Pierre Duplessis, the organization's secretary general, told the Ontario Superior Court in a video-taped apology as tearful victims looked on. "We accept responsibility...

Canada Red Cross Guilty in Blood Scandal May 30, 9:23 PM (ET)HAMILTON, Ontario (AP) The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty Monday to distributing blood tainted with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s, and was fined $4,000 in the public health disaster that infected thousands. More than 1,000 Canadians contracted blood-borne HIV and up to 20,000 others were infected with hepatitis C after receiving the tainted blood products. About 3,000 people had died by 1997 and the death toll has grown, but recent estimates were not available. "(The) Canadian Red Cross Society is deeply sorry for the injury and death...