FSTDT Forums
Community => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Shane for Wax on February 23, 2012, 03:36:44 pm
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/23/us-hepc-idUKTRE81M1HR20120223
Hepatitis C has surpassed HIV as a killer of U.S. adults, and screening all "baby boomers" could be one way to stem the problem, according to two new government studies.
Hepatitis C is a liver infection caused by a virus of the same name that is usually passed through contact with infected blood. An estimated 75 to 85 percent of infections become chronic, which can eventually cause serious diseases like cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver cancer.
In one of the new studies, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that by 2007, hepatitis C was killing more Americans than HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS.
In 2007, hepatitis C killed 15,100 Americans, accounting for 0.6 percent of all deaths that year. That compared with a little over 12,700 deaths related to HIV.
Don't share needles (if you do that kinda thing) and keep yourself wrapped and stay away from blood w/ your mouth, nose and other mucous membranes. "There is a risk from mucosal exposures to blood; but this risk is low, and there is no risk if blood exposure occurs on intact skin."
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So in other words, the same precautions you take to avoid HIV?
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So in other words, the same precautions you take to avoid HIV?
Yes. >.>
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Yeah, the tragic thing is that it's not that difficult to limit ones risk of exposure to these kinds of illnesses, yet millions of people continue to contract them needlessly. Of course, it would help if there wasn't such resistance to proper sex education, clean needle distribution and a treatment -- rather than punishment -- based method of dealing with drug addiction.