You really should read this: Hepatitis Treatment now requires an HIV Test first

[wiley]

I don't want to be the "heavy" but a good friend just lost a child to Hepatitis. She nor her husband have any idea how they got it, but he was mass innocculated in college against the flu, and no doctor ever thought to test these pretty "low-risk" people.

This is not a pharmaceutical company advertisement for anything.

Many places offer free or low cost screening: Please get screened for Hepatitis C, HIV and HSV-2 (Genital Herpes) the next time you see a doctor. There are vaccinations that could at least make living with HIV or Hepatitis C easier. And you can prevent making someone else's life a living trauma by not passing these things on. There are proposed Hepatitis as well as HIV prevention and treatment bills before Congress. Let your elected reps know you support these bills - and some form of Universal Health Care for everyone, including children - now while the CHIP program is being reauthorized. You have the chance to save a lot of kids and disabled people from dying without health care.

This is a warning the FDA issued about a drug used to treat Hepatitis B. On behalf of the several hundred million people chronically infected with Hepatitis B, and the several hundred more chronically infected with HIV (there is still no cure nor vaccination) let them know that you want to see full funding now for these programs.

Don't have to deal with things like this in your future (or your children's future): Patients should be offered HIV antibody testing before starting therapy. They should be informed that if they have HIV infection and are not receiving effective HIV treatment, BARCLUDE may increase the chance of HIV resistance to HIV medication. FDA approved revised labeling on July 24, 2007 for BARACLUDE (entecavir) 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg Film-Coated Tablets, and BARACLUDE (entecavir) 0.05 mg/mL Oral Solution for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus infection in adults with evidence of active viral replication and either evidence of persistent elevations in serum aminotransferases (ALT or AST) or histologically active disease. The amended label includes safety information related to the use of entecavir (ETV) in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfection who are not receiving simultaneous highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Specifically, a recommendation against the use of BARACLUDE in HIV/HBV co-infected patients who are not also receiving adequate therapy for their HIV were added to the Boxed Warnings and the WARNINGS sections of the label. Corresponding changes were made to PRECAUTIONS: Information for Patients section, and in the Patient Information (also referred to as the Patient Package Insert).

[wiley]

1. Really.