| COMMUNITY |
| Message Boards Chat Feedback |
| SITE SOURCES |
| Contents Help! Search CNN Networks |
| SPECIALS |
| Quick News Almanac Video Vault News Quiz |
|
House panel to conduct hearing on exposure to tainted blood
March 5, 1998
Web posted at: 3:21 a.m. EST (0821 GMT)In This Story:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Surgeon General David Satcher will be one of the witnesses at a congressional hearing on Thursday that will explore why U.S. citizens had not been notified that they received blood contaminated with hepatitis C.
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's human resources subcommittee will conduct the hearing.
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Liver Foundation are scheduled to testify.
The hearing will focus on the estimated 1 million Americans who received blood products contaminated with hepatitis C before 1990, when a test was developed to screen for the disease.
HHS missed an opportunity, critics say
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays An estimated 300,000 Americans are infected with hepatitis C as a result of these exposures, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The purpose of the hearing is to review the federal response to this problem," said U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who chairs the subcommittee.
He said the government has failed to notify those exposed by the blood, although the Food and Drug Administration has considered it on seven different occasions.
Shays and other critics of the Department of Health and Human Services are concerned that an opportunity had been missed several years ago to notify people with hepatitis C because it was thought that the disease was restricted to risk groups like drug users.
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays "We need to protect the saftey of the blood supply ..."
AIFF or WAV
(493 K / 22 sec. audio)
"We should have taken action 3 years ago ..."
AIFF or WAV
(289 K / 7 sec. audio)"We should have taken action three years ago to notify people that they may, in fact, have contracted hepatitis C."
HHS Secretary Donna Shalala promised to make the notification a high priority. She wrote one health expert as recently as January that it is her intent to reach as many at-risk people possible.
Called the silent epidemic
Hepatitis C is called a silent epidemic because many patients don't develop symptoms for decades. Many people who test positive for hepatitis C have no symptoms at all. They often find out when they are notified after a blood donation.
"We need to protect the safety of the blood supply. We did a pathetic job previous to 1992 and our committee had hearings to determine why so many people had contracted HIV/AIDS. We learned that many had also contracted hepatitis C. The difference is they don't know it," Shays said.
Hepatitis C is an infection of the liver. Some people who contract the disease could develop cirrhosis and require a liver transplant. Symptoms include extreme fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite and abdominal pain.
Treatment is with the drug interferon, but it is successful less than 20 percent of the time, according to researchers. A vaccine is more than 10 years away.
More than 4 million people in the United States may be infected with hepatitis C.
Correspondents Dr. Steve Salvatore and Jonathan Aiken contributed to this report
Related stories:
- Hemophiliacs warned about tainted clotting agent - January 16, 1996
- Panel warns of explosion in hepatitis C deaths - March 26, 1997
Related sites:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- American Liver Foundation
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Hep-C Alert
- The Hepatitis Foundation International
- HepNet - The Hepatitis Information Network
- A Hepatitis C Resource Page
- Pharmaceutical Information Associates, Ltd. - Managing Hepatitis C Virus Infection
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
|
Sound off on our message boards & chat |
|
