Canada: Personal-care worker struggles after contracting hepatitis C from client

The journey from the good life to bad started in the summer of 2011. Then, nearly 20 years into a career as a personal-care worker, Rowe took a client into her home for weekend care.

The non-communicative client cut herself in the bathroom and while a visiting nurse friend stemmed the bleeding, Rowe began to clean up.

“It’s summer, I’m in flip-flops and I’ve got cracked feet. I’ve got my gloves on, but they aren’t going to do anything for me.”

The client had hepatitis C and an unknowing Rowe contracted the disease.

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Doctors say needle sharing could trigger hepatitis C outbreak

"I shared a needle with him once," Barnes said.  And that was all it took.

WOODBURY, TN (WSMV) -The number of heroin addicts is on the rise, and it's not just a problem for the addicts. Doctors fear it could trigger an outbreak of hepatitis C.

"I was on methadone for years, oxycontin, meth, amphetamines," said Clayton Barnes, an addict and hepatitis C patient from Kentucky.

But heroin is the one addiction that would change Barnes' life forever, landing the 26-year-old at Addiction Campuses' treatment center in Woodbury.

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Indiana drafting county profiles of HIV, hepatitis C rates

Effort aims to help officials detect outbreaks, determine eligibility for needle exchange programs.

State health officials are creating profiles of HIV and hepatitis C rates for all 92 Indiana counties to help local officials detect outbreaks of either disease and determine whether they can seek help under a new needle-exchange law, a top state disease expert said Wednesday.

State epidemiologist Pam Pontones told members of the Indiana State Department of Health's executive board that the agency hopes to quickly complete work on those profiles, which also will include intravenous drug use rates for each county.

Having that data will help county health officials determine whether they're facing an outbreak of either virus and — if it's tied to IV drug use — whether they can request state approval for a needle-exchange program to try to contain that outbreak, she said.

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An Overview of HCV Transmission and Prevention

This fact sheet will include transmission routes and how to prevent
the transmission of hepatitis C.

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Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus Associated with Surgical Procedures — New Jersey 2010 and Wisconsin 2011

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

February 27, 2015 / 64(07);165-170

Incidents of health care–associated hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission that resulted from breaches in injection safety and infection prevention practices have been previously documented (1,2). During 2010 and 2011, separate, unrelated, occurrences of HCV infections in New Jersey and Wisconsin associated with surgical procedures were investigated to determine sources of HCV and mechanisms of HCV transmission. Molecular analyses of HCV strains and epidemiologic investigations indicated that transmission likely resulted from breaches of infection prevention practices. Health care and public health professionals should consider health care–associated transmission when evaluating acute HCV infections.

An estimated 3.2 million U.S. residents have chronic HCV infections; during 2011, approximately 16,500 acute HCV infections were diagnosed. Molecular analyses of HCV strains have enhanced investigations of health care–associated transmission (3–5) by determining the relatedness of strains infecting persons with acute and chronic HCV infection. Two investigations of HCV infection among patients who had surgical procedures highlight the potential for HCV contamination of medications or equipment, which can result in transmissions that are difficult to recognize.

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Why it took so long for the world to start using ‘smart,’ self-destructing syringes

The World Health Organization called Monday for the worldwide use of needle syringes that self-destruct after a single injection.

These "smart" syringes are a response to a problem that medical authorities have recognized for decades -- the frequent reuse of disposable shots. An estimated 25 percent of the 18 billion medical injections performed worldwide each year are done with dirty needles. Unsafe injections cause as many as 1.7 million new hepatitis B infections annually, 315,000 hepatitis C infections and 33,800 HIV infections, according to the World Health Organization. Stopping these infections would be a boon for public health.

“This is a risk we don’t have to be taking,” the WHO's Lisa Hedman said.

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Weekly Special Topic: Transmission and Prevention of Hepatitis C

Learn about how hepatitis C is transmitted and more importantly how to prevent transmission of hepatitis C with our newly updated fact sheets:

Transmission and Prevention of Hepatitis C.

   

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Ky. heroin bills raise hope, face skepticism

As the Kentucky General Assembly gears up for a shortened session and to tackle heroin legislation, many anti-heroin activists say proposed bills don't go far enough. 

One of the leading bills proposed to combat Kentucky's heroin epidemic gives an addict a better chance at receiving treatment if he is arrested than if he tries to check into a rehab clinic.

Another of the multiple proposals is expected to include a provision that would allow needle exchanges, an approach favored by public health officials trying to ward off the spread of hepatitis or HIV, but abhorred by conservatives not willing to appear soft on crime.

A third ups the criminal penalties for dealing heroin and other opiates without increasing any funding for treatment for addicts.

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