According to Penthouse, two new studies reveal that veterans may be at extreme risk for Hepatitis C, a silent epidemic that kills more than 10,000 Americans every year. Reporter Lisa Collier Cool, who first exposed the extent of the Hepatitis C Virus in Penthouse in August 1998, says in the April issue of the magazine that as many as one-in-five veterans have tested positive for the virus. This is a rate nearly ten times higher than that of the overall U.S. population.
Not all veterans are in equal danger, however. Most people who tested positive were Vietnam-era veterans, and all Vietnam vets are now being urged to get tested for H.C.V. Other dangers include people who have used I.V. drugs or snorted cocaine using a shared cocaine straw. The list of risk factors includes: receiving a blood transfusion before 1992 when a reliable blood-screening test was developed; body tattooing or piercing; needle stick from an infected syringe; spending more than 48 hours in jail; seeing duty as a combat medic; having had sex with more than 20 partners or engaging in sex with prostitutes; or having registered abnormal results in any liver function test.
Dr. Teresa Wright of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases said that 80 percent of the infected veterans had one or more of those factors in their history. But, what about the other 20 percent? Dr. Wright says one possibility may be military vaccines injected via air gun. "We didn't look at this, but it's a very important issue that hasn't been adequately studied."
