Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination • Hacker News Board

Re: Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination

#41

Post by AnnikaL » Sun, Jan 19, 2025, 4:58 AM UTC

Trasmatta wrote: post #30

strogonoff wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When feasible, spoken English favours double syllable combinations. Three is too many, one is too few for disambiguation in a lossy environment. Hence Jersey, LA, San Fran, Philly, but not York. It’s not a hard rule, of course.

Ahh that makes a lot of sense, thank you! It does feel like it's more about the syllables than anything. > San Fran Or SF, if you want to avoid making the people that live there mad

My SF-born mother also often calls it "The City" (though this is 3 syllables).

Re: Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination

#42

Post by DrAlGreen70 » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 2:58 AM UTC

greatgib wrote: post #21

The therapy costs about £100,000 upfront and then as much as £200,000 a year to treat 50 people. Isn't it a little bit expensive just for a blood letting? Basically it should be like a blood donation where you can directly throw the extracted blood. No?

I didn't see the actual procedure mentioned by name, but they're likely talking about therapeutic plasma exchange.

It's a procedure nearly identical to plasma donation except they use a larger volume that requires a replacement fluid. In this instance they'd replace with normal saline with albumin, which is a protein that's important for maintaining intravascular volume among other things.

Plasma donation will accomplish the same objective, but it takes about 4-5 donations to remove the same amount of plasma as an exchange would.

Re: Bloodletting recommended for Jersey residents after PFAS contamination

#43

Post by DrAlGreen70 » Mon, Jan 20, 2025, 2:59 AM UTC

woleium wrote: post #27

etskinner wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone who also thought that was a weird way to say the stat, it's £2,000 upfront and £4,000 a year for one person. It does seem awfully high. Donating blood costs way less. Maybe the treatment they're saying the cost for is the drug rather than the bloodletting?

i assume they get a transfusion as well?

Would be unnecessary. They'd only be removing the plasma component. Either via plasmapheresis or a nearly identical procedure called plasma exchange.