Attention: Vietnam Veterans Get Tested For Hep C.

[broncovet]

The military used a gun to vaccinate that was later found to spread blood borne diseases, especially Hepatitis C. The gun was banned because it spread disease, but the military denied that it caused Veterans to get sick. If you are a Veteran, MY VA medical center does not test for Hep. C unless I ask for it. What happens is, the hep eventually goes to the liver and eats it away, killing you. Often, the VA tries to blame the Veteran and/or alcohol/ tatoos for the disease. In short you need to do two things:

1. Get tested for Hep C. The VA does not test unless you ask for this specific test.

2. Go to this website: http://hcvets.com/AskNOD/index.html

[purple]

As mentioned in another post....other era's of vets need to be tested as well. I enlisted in 1985 and had the injector gun used on me. Not sure when they stopped using them.

[Berta]

I wonder if any Vietnam vets got Hep C from the Vietnamese barber in Danang who-after the War-was found to be undercover for the North Vietnamese-

sharing shaving gear,utensils,any contact with blood, etc- many things can cause this disease and also be found directly due to one's service.

not always easy but certainly possible

[john999]

What are symptoms of Hep C?

[purple]

This is from the emedicine webiste:

Although hepatitis C damages the liver, 80% of people with the disease do not have symptoms. In those who do, symptoms may not appear for 10-20 years, or even longer. Even then, the symptoms usually come and go and are mild and vague. Unfortunately, by the time symptoms appear, the damage may be very serious.

• A minority of people have symptoms during the early acute phase of the infection. These symptoms typically develop 5-12 weeks after exposure to HCV. Some people describe the symptoms as being flulike. The symptoms may last a few weeks or months.
  
  
  • Nausea
    
  • Vomiting
    
  • Diarrhea
    
  • Loss of appetite
    
  • Fatigue
    
  • Pain over the liver (on the right side of the abdomen, just under the rib cage)
    
  • Jaundice - A condition in which the skin and the whites of the eyes turn yellow
    
  • Dark-colored urine (may look like cola or tea)
    
  • Stools become pale in color (grayish or clay colored)
    

[Quint7]

I got tested 6 or 7 years ago when the local clinic did an outreach during a "standown" to help homeless vets. I didn't see any homeless vets there but I did get the then new picture ID card and actually submitted the envelope to VA as evidence that VA knew how to reach me but did (about a claim). I have since learned that the 3 branches of VA (Comp, medical, Education) don't talk to each other.

More on topic, it is good for anyone who can to get tested. I was in from 88-94 and when I went in they still were using the guns to give shots in boot camp (USMC). there are even pictures of it in our "yearbooks" that we got at graduation. Then factor in the God only knows how many shots we got in the week before we were deployed to the Gulf in 1990 and the ones we received in the ever so sanitary conditions known as "bent over the hood of the docs HumVee" and all of the times I was cut, etc. and...... well you get the picture.

Get tested......

Also, my step-dad who did 14 months as a grunt in Nam and died 2 years ago from "they couldn't really figure out what" initially showed signs of Hep C when he got sick 7 years ago. They never did say that he had it later on.

[Pete53]

I noticed that when they used the gun they wiped the blood off but not the gun. I tested for Hep C with a 19.99 test kit that said no sign of it.

It is curable though. Just expensive to cure and you all know the VA is not adverse to letting a Veteran die if it saves them money. At least that is my opinion.