National News  | Class Claims Dating Sites Disclose Statuses UNITED STATES :: HIV/AIDS,STDs
Courthouse News Service (07.23.2013) :: By William Dotinga | | | SuccessfulMatch.com customers have filed a class action suit against the dating Web site conglomerate for posting their HIV and STD statuses on multiple other Web sites, thus violating confidentiality promises. The suit alleges that SuccessfulMatch lured HIV- and STD-infected clients to join its PositiveSingles.com dating site by promising that the site would keep their profiles anonymous and would not share personally identifiable information. Although the PositiveSingles dating site home page emphasized customers’ privacy, the claimants charged that SuccessfulMatch shared personal information entered in the PositiveSingles.com site with thousands of other Web sites operated by SuccessfulMatch.
The suit also stated that SuccessfulMatch set up all its Web sites with identical formats and falsely promised that each Web site was “unique” and “exclusive.” Claimants charged that SuccessfulMatch designed its Web sites’ forms so that most members never saw the Terms of Service, and members could not print out the Terms of Service. Customers could obtain a copy of the Terms of Service only by personally contacting SuccessfulMatch.com and requesting it. The Terms of Service provisions gave Successful Match.com the right to share all profiles in PositiveSingles.com, gave SuccessfulMatch the rights to all information entered in the site, and gave the conglomerate permission to share the profiles.
The suit seeks class certification, restitution, declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction against the defendant’s business plan and collection of fees, and compensatory and punitive damages.
|  Read Full Article | Share this Article     | | Back to Top  |  | | International News  | Call to Fight Hepatitis PAKISTAN :: Viral Hepatitis
The Nation (Pakistan) (07.29.2013) | | | This past weekend, Pakistan joined the global observation of World Hepatitis Day to increase viral hepatitis awareness, preventative efforts, and access to treatment. Pakistan estimates 16 million residents had contracted hepatitis, mostly through injections and needle sharing.
The worldwide theme of this year’s World Hepatitis Day was “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil,” which emphasized the need to stop globally ignoring the disease. Event organizers stressed the need to involve communities by raising awareness, promoting partnership, and mobilizing resources. According to Dr. Farina Hanif of Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), the theme “refers to those who deal with the problem by refusing to acknowledge it. This theme was chosen to highlight that hepatitis is being ignored around the world.” Approximately 200 participants joined together in a global attempt to break the previous Guinness Book of World Records tally for the most people performing the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” pantomime of covering of their eyes, ears, and mouths.
While speaking Sunday at a hepatitis B health awareness seminar, SIUT Director Adib Rizvi indicated that approximately 15 million Pakistanis suffer from hepatitis B and C. He urged the government to develop a comprehensive plan to avert millions of deaths.
Dr. Zaigham Abbass of SIUT’s gastroenterology department discussed the method of transmission of viral hepatitis. He explained that hepatitis A and E are transmitted through oral and fecal routes while B and C spread through blood.
Reports have shown that the major reason for Pakistan’s high hepatitis rate is needle use, with approximately 30 percent of the population receiving at least 10 injections every year. Many people received injections for therapeutic reasons; hepatitis can be spread from the reuse of syringes, inadequate sterilization techniques, or hospital waste management systems. Unsafe blood transfusions also contribute to spreading the virus.
A survey of 47,043 persons by the Pakistan Medical and Research council revealed a 2.4-percent hepatitis B prevalence rate and a 4.9-percent hepatitis C rate. The World Health Organization, working with the Provincial Hepatitis Control Programmes, identified a total of 30 Pakistani districts that needed immediate attention to stop the spread of the disease.
Dr. Saeed Hamid, from Agha Khan University, said that vaccines and treatment for hepatitis B and C that could save millions of lives exist, but the Pakistani government needed to make them more easily available.
| | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Medical News  | Six Recommended Measures to Prevent Hepatitis C for Young Injection-Drug Users CALIFORNIA :: Viral Hepatitis
University of California, San Francisco (07.24.2013) :: By Jeff Sheehy | | | Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have come up with six measures to prevent hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission among injection drug users. The measures resulted from the “U Find Out” (UFO) study, a 16-year UCSF injection drug use research project funded by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Australian Government Department of Health and Aging.
After examining various data sources, the researchers estimated 31,000 new HCV diagnoses occurred per year and pinpointed six areas for focusing prevention efforts. Although syringe exchange has worked, the researchers found that the virus lived a long time on surfaces and could contaminate drug-injection equipment in addition to syringes. As a result, they approved of expanding needle exchanges across the country, but recommended that all needle exchanges provided clean preparation equipment as well as the usual needles and syringes. The researchers also recommended HCV screening, testing, and counseling; risk reduction through interventions targeting the social and relational environment of injecting; interventions that provided breaks from or completely ended drug use; development of models to guide new hepatitis C treatments and vaccines; and combined interventions to end HCV risk and injecting drug use.
The study also examined behaviors associated with users’ attempts to complete substance abuse programs. Although the injectors often failed the programs, the study showed that the more they tried to quit or take breaks from drugs, the higher the chances that they would succeed eventually. The researchers highlighted the value of taking breaks from drugs to reduce the risk of transmission and help end drug use, and disapproved of treatment programs that permanently banned injectors who failed as not being conducive to reducing disease exposure risks or ending the drug use.
The full report, “Injection Drug Use and Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Young Adult Injectors: Using Evidence to Inform Comprehensive Prevention,” was published in a supplement to the journal Clinical Infectious Disease (2013; 57 [Suppl 2]: S32–S38). | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Local and Community News  | Hepatitis C on the Rise Among Boomers in Broward, Palm FLORIDA :: Viral Hepatitis
Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) (07.28.2013) :: By Diane C. Lade | | | Despite increased hepatitis C virus (HCV) incidence among baby boomers, most people ages 48–68 did not know that their age group’s risk of HCV infection was five times higher than that of other groups, according to a survey of 400 Miami-Dade and Broward County, Fla., residents conducted by pharmaceutical manufacturer Genentech, Inc. Sixty-two percent of survey participants reported never having an HCV test.
State health officials estimated that 40 percent of Florida’s 300,000 chronic HCV cases occurred among people born between 1945 and 1965, and two-thirds to three-fourths of Floridians with HCV remained undiagnosed. Health officials have documented 1,168 HCV cases in Palm Beach County thus far in 2013, compared to 722 during the same time period in 2012. Broward County has reported 1,077 cases so far this year, compared to 683 in 2012. Forty-five percent of this year’s Palm Beach cases and 60 percent of this year’s Broward cases occurred among people age 50 and older.
HCV passes from one person to another through blood-to-blood contact, as in sexual intercourse or sharing needles. Baby boomers are more vulnerable because of sexual freedom and drug use during the 1960s, and because blood supply testing did not become standard until 1992.
In 2012, CDC recommended a one-time hepatitis test for all baby boomers. Florida Department of Health Spokesperson Tim O’Connor stated that increased HCV incidence resulted from a requirement that all testing laboratories report positive HCV test results to the health department.
Dr. Kalyan Ram Bhamidimarri, a transplant hepatologist and gastroenterologist at the University of Miami Hospital, recommended that primary care physicians stress the importance of HCV testing, especially for baby boomers. HCV testing requires a simple blood test that is covered by most insurance policies or available at low cost or free from prevention groups or nonprofit organizations. Medicare does not cover testing unless symptoms require testing for diagnosis. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | News Briefs  | AHF Opens STD Clinic in North Dallas TEXAS :: HIV/AIDS,STDs
Dallas Voice (07.25.2013) | | | The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has opened an STD clinic at its North Dallas office. According to AHF Texas Regional Director Bret Camp, the clinic will operate twice a week to provide free testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. The office, located at 7777 Forest Lane, Suite B–122 on the Medical City campus in Dallas, opens Mondays from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Thursdays from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. To schedule an appointment, call (972) 383–1066. AHF, the largest provider of healthcare to individuals with HIV in the United States, has offices in both Fort Worth and Dallas.
| | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | | | | | Tallahassee Celebrates World Hepatitis Day in a Big Way FLORIDA :: Viral Hepatitis
WCTV.tv (Tallahassee, FL) (07.28.2013) :: By Elizabeth Nickerson | | | Thirty-seven people gathered in Tallahassee, Fla., on World Hepatitis Day, July 28, to help try to break a record in the Guinness Book of World Records. The Hepatitis Education and Liver Support (H.E.A.L.S.) group organized the event in an effort to raise awareness about hepatitis, which receives little to no attention even though it is a global epidemic. The group assembled at a local lake “to act out see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil to bring awareness to the fact that no one is talking about it," said a H.E.A.L.S. member who has hepatitis C. "Someone dies from hepatitis every 30 seconds [but] no one is talking about it," she added. The group said it hoped that raising awareness regarding the disease also would raise more funding. It also urged baby boomers to get tested for hepatitis C. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | |
7/29/2013
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