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Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

nature.com

31–40 of 105 posts

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#31
post #18

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

They'll double down and blame the government for the ensuing deaths.

It's God's Will until it happens to you.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#32

What happened in Canada? You see charts like this with sub-Saharan Africa and Mongolia are lit up and that's no surprise, but then Canada shows up and you wonder what happened. They scored worse than the US at a healthcare metric! They scored worse than Mexico . Is this one of those things where the Indigenous population has a real problem that is skewing the numbers for the entire country or did the government not b…

I don't know _what_ is going on but I have a guess.

I live in Canada. We see these 'Hepatitis vaccine' posters at every doctors office/clinc. They are all related to "going on vacation somewhere warm".

So the implication is "Caribbean vacation = hepatitis".

There were even TV commercials that tried to show "unexpected places you could get hepatitis from", from the ice-cube, from the sand on the beach (showing a cut foot), from a nail salon, etc. Just to try and raise awareness.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#33

Viruses that cause hepatitis actually embed themselves WITHIN LDL Particles (the "bad" cholesterol) to transport around the body. In doing so, they hide from the immune system. APOE it turns out, the Alzheimer's gene, ALSO predicts your risk for liver cancer ...... because this is the gene that the virus binds to while assembling into the particle. Hepatitis virus infections are strongly associated with heart disease…

FYI, 23andme provides an Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease report[1] based via the ε4 variant but does not test for a person's full APOE genotype.

[1] https://you.23andme.com/reports/ghr.alzheimers/

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#34

What happened in Canada? You see charts like this with sub-Saharan Africa and Mongolia are lit up and that's no surprise, but then Canada shows up and you wonder what happened. They scored worse than the US at a healthcare metric! They scored worse than Mexico . Is this one of those things where the Indigenous population has a real problem that is skewing the numbers for the entire country or did the government not b…

I don't know _what_ is going on but I have a guess. I live in Canada. We see these 'Hepatitis vaccine' posters at every doctors office/clinc. They are all related to "going on vacation somewhere warm". So the implication is "Caribbean vacation = hepatitis". There were even TV commercials that tried to show "unexpected places you could get hepatitis from", from the ice-cube, from the sand on the beach (showing a cut f…

Hepatitis rates among First Nations, Metis and Inuit are apparently significantly higher than hepatitis rates among other Canadians.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#35
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are living anywhere it's worth getting vaccines for hepatitis A and B.

Hep A is a waterborne disease. If you live somewhere with proper sanitation and don't have contact with sewage you are at low risk and the funds for the vaccine are better directed elsewhere.

San Francisco residents have extra contact with sewage than the normal person because the feces and urine that are everywhere.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#36

Viruses that cause hepatitis actually embed themselves WITHIN LDL Particles (the "bad" cholesterol) to transport around the body. In doing so, they hide from the immune system. APOE it turns out, the Alzheimer's gene, ALSO predicts your risk for liver cancer ...... because this is the gene that the virus binds to while assembling into the particle. Hepatitis virus infections are strongly associated with heart disease…

FYI, 23andme provides an Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease report[1] based via the ε4 variant but does not test for a person's full APOE genotype. [1] https://you.23andme.com/reports/ghr.alzheimers/

pssst .... APOE genotype predicts how much viral DNA for Herpes is found in the brain .... post mortem .....

It's almost as if Herpes viruses transport around the body the same way ;)

(Bar plots in this paper are LOG!)

https://jvi.asm.org/content/80/11/5383/figures-only

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#37
Weird notes on HBV:

- More contagious than HCV or HIV, apparently can even be spread via saliva. Potential infections can happen from uncleaned tattoo guns, razors used for shaves, unchanged soaking water/bowls and cuticle scissors at nail salons, unwashed hotel sheets/towels/robes, etc

- 5-10% of immunized people don't develop enough antibodies to protect against infection

- Remains contagious from 7 days to a month outside the body

- Can be killed by boiling, but 1:9 bleach solution requires up to 20 minutes soaking (hydrogen peroxide is quicker)

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#38

Tangent: The headline brings up an interesting thought.. I wonder what anti-vaxx people will do when a new scary virus emerges. Something actively and aggressively flying through the population. So much of the anti-vaxx mindset is supported by herd immunity. But when a scenario finally happens where herd immunity is compromised.. It'll be interesting to see how the vaccination discussion plays out. edit : The downvot…

Maybe this is too off topic for here but I have always wondered why people are so angry at Anti-Vaxx people? Yes... the compromise our Herd Immunity, but don't they also serve as a "Canary in The Coal Mine", risking their own health so that the human genome can keep battling with and evolving natural defenses against disease?

Because they are not just risking their own health.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#39
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are living anywhere it's worth getting vaccines for hepatitis A and B.

Hep A is a waterborne disease. If you live somewhere with proper sanitation and don't have contact with sewage you are at low risk and the funds for the vaccine are better directed elsewhere.

HepA is more accurately transmitted via what's called the "oral-fecal route". If you eat food prepared by other people, people who may not be completely diligent in washing their hands, it's worth getting vaccinated. There's a large outbreak in Los Angeles currently. https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/hav/afaq.htm#statistics

I agree that it's a low risk disease but disagree that funds would be better spent elsewhere as it is a cheap vaccine. Most people here probably were already vaccinated as a baby or had it as a child without obvious symptoms. If you get it as an adult it can make you quite sick and put you out of commission for a few days but rarely kills people, unless you have chronic liver disease already for another reason. It's the cirrhotics who suddenly get exposed for the first time as an adult who wind up with fulminant liver failure and die.

Re: Viral hepatitis: A silent epidemic killing more people than HIV, malaria or TB

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know _what_ is going on but I have a guess. I live in Canada. We see these 'Hepatitis vaccine' posters at every doctors office/clinc. They are all related to "going on vacation somewhere warm". So the implication is "Caribbean vacation = hepatitis". There were even TV commercials that tried to show "unexpected places you could get hepatitis from", from the ice-cube, from the sand on the beach (showing a cut f…

Hepatitis rates among First Nations, Metis and Inuit are apparently significantly higher than hepatitis rates among other Canadians.

That does sound plausible.

Free health care? Sure! Drinkable water? Fuck no!

The only good thing you can say about Canadas treatment of it's First Nations is that we haven't recently given them small-pox filled blankets.*

*that has been caught on film and verified by 300 independent labs.

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