July 2009- Available online
http://www.hcvets.com/SurveillanceAlerts/090714JetgunVideo.htm
View Archive http://hcvets.com/SurveillanceAlerts/TOC.htm

 

	HCVets.com Surveillance Report

• Video of Jet injections  CBS " 60 MINUTES" documentary on the swine flu epidemics of 1976 in the U.S. It went on air only once and was never shown again. http://www.dailymotion.com/ No wiping off the gun, no gloves, using reused vials, one patient after another...
   

• CDC History- Reflections on the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccination Program David J. Sencer* and J. Donald Millar† *Atlanta, Georgia, USA; and †Murraysville, Georgia, USA- In 1976, 2 recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey, had an influenza like illness... a strain similar to the virus believed at the time to be the cause of the 1918 pandemic, commonly known as swine flu... >200 soldiers had been infected and that person-to-person transmission... process by which these events led to the public health decision to mass-vaccinate the American public against the virus and the subsequent events that led to the program's cancellation.. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-1007.htm#1
   

• CDC Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines
  Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2009 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr58e0724a1.htm?s_cid=rr58e0724a1_e - Early Release-Volume 58, Early Release-July 24, 2009  PDF of this issue http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/rr/rr58e0724.pdf
   

Legal Highlights:

• Court makes it harder to fight claim denials
  The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has made it harder for veterans to challenge the denial of medical claims by the Veterans Affairs Department...The high court, in a 6-3 decision on Tuesday, said veterans who contend the VA failed to tell them what information was needed to justify their claims must prove that the VA's mistakes made a difference in the outcome of their cases...A federal appeals court in Washington earlier ruled that the burden was on the VA to prove the errors were not harmful to the veterans.
  http://www.armytimes.com/news/  
   
• Backlog of veterans' claims approaches one million by Kimberly Hefling Associated Press WASHINGTON - This isn't the same as getting a free duffel bag for being the millionth person to go through the turnstiles: The Veterans Affairs Department appears poised to have hit the one million milestone on claims it still hasn't processed. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/
   
• Vets get benefits they didn't know they had
  By Kyung M. Song Seattle Times staff reporter- Every month for most of the past decade, Benjamin "Frank" Jordan has forked over as much as $2,000 of his Social Security and veterans benefits to help Medicaid offset the cost of his nursing-home care... What Jordan didn't know was that he shouldn't have paid a cent...
  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

UPDATE: Non-Drug Related Transmission
of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)

I-Team: Final Report on Hep C Crisis to be Released KLAS-TV - Las Vegas,NV,USA The announcement in February 2008 of a hepatitis C outbreak in southern Nevada prompted thousands to face their fear of needles. Notices sent to some 60000 ... "We know there were tens of thousands of people getting tested, but we can't say ...from our clinic population, what percentage were positive out of those. We just don't have ...actual number."...limited information provided... next to impossible to isolate clinic patients from others seeking testing...Frustrated by a lack of information, five months into its investigation the district launched a voluntary exposure registry. Fewer than 15-percent of clinic patients enrolled. http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=10781474

Veterans Health Alerts

• Paris Island- Decades of Poison Water- More vets report cancer By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer Friday, July 3, 2009 Scientists studying drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune were startled when 11 men with breast cancer and ties to the North Carolina base were identified over the last two years. Six more have been found in one week...Five additional men with breast cancer and a sixth who had a double mastectomy after doctors found precancerous tumors contacted the St. Petersburg Times last week after reading a story about the 11 men with the rare disease. http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/ Pass to your Marine friends
  

• Exposure to Agent Orange is a significant predictor of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based recurrence and a rapid PSA doubling time after radical prostatectomy BJU International Volume 103 Issue 9, Pages 1168 -1172 Published Online: 6 Mar 2009 © 2009 BJU International...Increasing evidence is emerging that exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant used during the Vietnam War, increases risk for a variety of health problems, including prostate cancer, although the exact mechanism is unclear
  
  
  Institute of Medicine (IOM) releases Agent Orange research results- VVA to VA:  Don't Wait for Us to Die:  Grant Association to Agent Orange Exposure For Parkinson's, Heart Disease, Hypertension
  

• Study: Patients with resolved hepatitis C likely still contagious
  PhysOrg.com - Evergreen,VA,USA Patients with chronic hepatitis C that has been resolved through therapy or immune response may still be able to infect others with the virus. ...
   

• Did Contractor Expose Troops To Toxin? On Delphi... follow the line of information on who knew what and when...

I In a message dated 7/19/2009 11:02:50 AM Eastern Standard Time, woodpecker002 writes: I DON'T FORWARD MANY THINGS...BUT........NUFF SAID.....IN MEMORY OF "SHIFTY" We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services. I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers. Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland , into Arnheim ." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day. I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say. I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach. He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this. Shifty died on June 17, 2009 after fighting cancer. There was no parade. No big event in Staples Center . No wall to wall back to back 24/7 news coverage. No weeping fans on television. And that's not right. Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans. Rest in peace, Shifty.