URGENT! ON THE MOVE.

FAX this letter to your representative NOW!
http://www.march-on-dc.com/CDC/GAO/FromHCVActivists.doc

Several bills will be introduced in Congress's 100 hour marathon session that support "HIV Industry" corporate takeover of Hepatitis C Disease Funding.

Download and Fax to your representative:
Letter from Activist to O&I regarding CDC reorganization and management of financial resources
http://www.march-on-dc.com/CDC/GAO/FromHCVActivists.doc

Letter from Activist to O&I regarding CDC reorganization and management of financial resources.

November 2006

To: The Honorable

Subject:  Recommendations to Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation's (O&I) letter to the CDC with regard to reorganization and management of financial resources.

 The O & I committee has requested a briefing for the status of the CDC's reorganization plan. [1]  We ask for the opportunity to respond with considerations and recommendations pertinent to this investigation.

The purpose for this request is to advise the committee that CDC "Reorganization" has really meant privatizing an agency established to protect public's interest. Reorganization delegate entrusted responsibilities to the private sector, through non-profits, shifting away from serving the public good, to serving special interests. Privatization lacks accountability, transparency, oversight, and compromises the public’s safety through weakened agency enforcement.

The CDC was established to protect the public’s interest as its "top priority and mandate". The objective of reorganization was to insure scientific programs directly benefit the public by saving money through consolidated services. During a 2006 interview with Science Magazine, the current CDC director, Julie Gerberding assured the public; that no area of research funding has decreased to accommodate the reorganization. She states, "The budget is very constrained by very strict budget lines that basically dictate, you spend your money for this." [2]

The following information may show need to establish an O&I Committee investigation because reorganization plans have evaded oversight, at least Dr. Gerberding's, through the federal funded "pre-existing" integration programs designed for prevention and control of Hepatitis C (HCV).

The HCV strategy plan was drafted and federally funded after former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop described the epidemic as, “one of the most significant, preventable and treatable public health problems facing our nation…. a graver threat than the AIDS crisis.” Experts like Dr. Koop and his successor Dr. David Satcher, gave an ominous warnings to the general public, about the threat posed by the current HCV crisis.[3]

The foremost goal for the federal response was to approve funding for ‘Hepatitis C Coordinators’ in every state and large metropolitan health department to meet the expressed concern. Coordinator duties were to provide the management, networking, and technical expertise required for successful integration into existing public health programs.[4]

However, a recent survey conducted by Hepatitis C Movement for Awareness, discovered 6 vacant positions, including Indian Health Services. Other vacant positions included coordinators located in Colorado, Kansas, Philadelphia, Tennessee, & Delaware. Furthermore, 20 contacts, listed on the CDC website as HCV Coordinators’, did not responded to a request for information about HCV.

The reorganization plan, called "Futures Initiative", began in 2003. In theory, the innovative structure creates new "coordinating centers" that oversee CDC's existing centers and in the process has redefined the description for HCV coordinators. The definitions of responsibilities now include the acceleration of integration for all Viral Hepatitis Intervention Plans under guidelines of the Center for HIV/AIDS, STD and TB Prevention. [5]  The patients receive STD clinic referrals for counseling and prevention. The clinical guidelines facilitate prevention methods deemed "STD/HIV friendly", despite Drs. Koop and Satcher's, grave warnings to notify the general public about HCV.

 

CDC education and training cooperative agreements for HCV are typically with non-governmental organizations consisting of former HIV activist, and STD/HIV based organizations. During reorganization, the desperately needed resources, outlined in the Federal Strategy Plan, to assess the societal impact of the epidemic were not even a consideration.[6]

As of 2004- Dr. James Hughes, director, Center for Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Harold Margolis, chief of the viral hepatitis division for 17 years, left the CDC, citing, "all-consuming reorganization" and shift away from science based programs.1 CDC employees also complain a political verses science based influences has played a part in the drafting of reorganization plans. In all, 6 of the 8 department heads have resigned.[7]

HCV is responsible for Non A/ Non B Hepatitis and discovered 17 years ago. It is a member of the Flaviviridae virus family, including West Nile and Yellow fever viruses that transmit by mosquitoes.[8] Although the "school of thought' is HCV does not transmit this way, research is sketchy.

Still today, 80% of infected citizens do not know they have the virus.[9] Further government testimony revealed 1 in 10 military retirees and veterans have this virus.[10]   In spite of that, neither the CDC nor Veterans Affairs has a comprehensible educational campaign underway to alert veterans who do not utilize the VA health system of their risk and need to be tested. 

Martin Friede, Ph.D., World Health Organization sworn testimony during the 2005 FDA General Hospital and Personal Use Devices Panel, testified that mass injecting campaigns with military style needleless jet injectors are a significant risk for transmission of Hepatitis. Latest research shows all four of the mass injectors used until 1999, tested positive for contamination and had capability to transmit blood borne pathogens.[11] This explains why military and their families are infected 2 to 1 over the general public.

Traced back to 1942, the HCV virus infected 78% of soldiers through blood-based vaccination for yellow fever, as confirmed by NIH scientists.[12] In 1988, there were 242,000 HCV infections reported annually among the general public. These high figures continued throughout the 1960's, 70's and 80's.  In 1989, the new, yearly infections decreased 80% after mandatory heating/washing of blood products and the "slow to come" enforcement of standard procedures.[13]  

The National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc. (NACHC) points out approximately 30,000 cases of acute hepatitis C each year and near 85% become chronically infected. The CDC estimates that the number of deaths from end-stage liver disease will reach 30,000 to 40,000 annually by the year 2010.[14] Sadly, 26,000 people will die this year because of HCV. To present a clearer picture, each hour of every day, 3 people will die, and 2 will have a military background, according to congressional testimony from Veterans Affairs and federal institutions such as NIH. 

However, public health and all CDC corporate agreement literature quote HCV death rates between 10-12,000 deaths annually, based on 1998 NIH data.[15] As activists and patients, we must ask, how can the death of 14,000 Americans go unaccounted?  

The consequences of reorganization have eluded the "state of the emergency" declared by two surgeon generals. Misinformation to contain the federally approved funding for HCV has lead the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to recommend "against" routine screening, citing the "potential for harm to test outweigh the need.[16]  Ironically, HCV is 100 times more infectious than HIV and has 5 times the number of patients infected but the Task Force recommends HIV testing.

Reorganization has ignored the factual modes of transmission for this virus, giving focus to the least likely; if at all possible, way this virus transmits. STD/HIV prevention methods alone, do not work for HCV as shown in the example of a privately funded needle-exchange program in Pittsburgh, PA. The City declared a HIV and HCV public health emergency among intravenous drug users in 2001.[17] After four years, the facts speak for themselves: 

Confirmed cases of HCV:

·          149 in 2002

·          298 in 2003

·          211 in 2004

·          393 In 2005

During that period, consistent reports of 100 HIV cases, annually, in that county.

According to a survey conducted at a large Midwestern university; an astonishing 75% of College undergraduates in the United States do not recognize the magnitude of their risk behaviors for contracting HCV. Researchers found a potential risk factor, from tattoos to sharing body jewelry.[18]

In summary, when Congress decided to fund HIV/AIDS, an industry emerged.  Like other industries, the HIV/AIDS industry is attempting to grow.  Its growth strategy is to control the HCV epidemic.  Notable, "generalizing" deadly bloodborne pathogen diseases, like HCV, enforces HIV non-profit's purpose for its mission above public health needs. The reorganization and prevention strategy plan has failed taxpayers and the military by separation of government away from entrusted responsibilities with lethal consequences for the public health.

We understand the CDC's finance office may be under investigation for inefficiency and ineffective leadership and ask the committee to please examine the reduction in HCV services as a result of reorganization and a possible conflict of the fiduciary responsibility to the American public and the military. The CDC's lack of accountability for handling of the HCV epidemic is worthy of an oversight investigation. 

Recommendations:

1. Examine the reduction in HCV services as a result of reorganization

2. Examine political verses science based influences during the drafting of reorganization plans, specifically designed to accelerate the integration.

3. Determine conflicting fiduciary relationship resulting from cooperative agreements with private organizations.

4. General Accounting Office investigation- The GAO should determine if privatizing an agency designed to be the ultimate in public protection, is shifting away from its mission by sectioning off duties of the agency that are vital for public safety and trust.

5. Address the millions of military veterans falling through the public health cracks for HCV identification and intervention services.

Respectfully,