A new Veteran’s Affairs study is showing that a parasite from Vietnam could be killing veterans who fought in the war a half a century later.
Hundreds of veterans have a new reason to believe they may be dying from a silent bullet. Test results show some men may have been infected by a slow-killing parasite while fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia. The Department of Veterans Affairs this spring commissioned a small pilot study to look into the link between liver flukes ingested through raw or undercooked fish and a rare bile duct cancer. It can take decades for symptoms to appear. By then, patients are often in tremendous pain, with just a few months to live.
According to Fox News, of the 50 blood samples submitted, more than 20 percent came back positive or bordering positive for liver fluke antibodies, said Sung-Tae Hong, the tropical medicine specialist who carried out the tests at Seoul National University in South Korea. “It was surprising,” he said, stressing the preliminary results could include false positives and that the research is ongoing.
All those who tested positive for the parasite have been notified. Gerry Wiggins, who served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, has already lost friends to the disease ad he was among those who got the call. “I was in a state of shock,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be me.”
The 69-year-old, who lives in Port Jefferson Station, New York, didn’t have any symptoms when he agreed to take part in the study but hoped his participation could help save lives. He immediately scheduled further tests, discovering he had two cysts on his bile duct, which had the potential to develop into cancer, known as cholangiocarcinoma. They have since been removed he’s doing well.
But other veterans have already succumbed to the parasite’s cancer-causing effects. Endemic in the rivers of Vietnam, the worms can easily be wiped out with a handful of pills early on, but left untreated they can live for decades without making their hosts sick. Over time, swelling and inflammation of the bile duct can lead to cancer. The symptoms, which include jaundice, itchy skin, and weight loss only when the disease is in its final stages.
The VA suggests that veterans who ingested undercooked or raw fish while serving in Vietnam should get tested for fluke, and have their liver examined by a medical professional.
To have you liver examined by an MD do you have to send it in?
First it was VC(victory Charlie) “toothpicks” they had to watch out for. Now its VC liver flukes, after a AO dusting. WTF? After all these years it was really the feds that they had to be wary of.
Brown walking parasites from Mexico are killing people on the streets of America every day, yet the liberals want to let them in freely.
the vets I knew all had liver problems from drinking too much Wild Turkey not liver flukes?
If you did mail it in they’d probably just trip over it for several months before they’d call you to say “all done you can come pick it up now”.
Boys and girls there just ain’t enough bullets,’nough time, to start and finish “The Reckoning”.
please do
I think Monsanto with Agent Orange continues to take a bigger toll on the health of American and Vietnamese that were exposed. America is the biggest pusher of poisonous chemicals in the world.
That is disgusting. In my HS science class the teacher had a huge collection of worms. Worms from all kinds of animals. Very freaky for a 9th grader to see all those worms sitting in the back of the class.
Not sure if you guys heard about it, that NK dude that was shot a few days, escaping, was full of worms. During the surgeries, to save his life, they found 25 cm long worms in his intestines. I can’t imagine being on that medical team.
I remember learning about liver flukes. It sounds horrible. I would advise anyone that has been to a tropical area and anyone that eats raw seafood to be checked out.
Food grade Diatomaceous Earth–cheap at TSC. A quanity that lasts forever.
Farmers use it on their livestock and animals.
No one ever got this parasite in Canida?
where is canida?. is it near Canada?
Still got Agent Orange shadowing me, no Hep C, never ate raw fish in VN, or drank untreated water. Just another benefit from Uncle Sam, a chance to have to fight them at the VA for years about a service connected disease/disability, until you either die or quit bothering them some other way. Their favorite ploy is to test you and tell you nothing’s wrong. Then you get tested at a private doctor, and she hits the roof when she sees what you’ve got in you. But by now, my good private doctor (BCBS) is well adjusted to anything she finds wrong with me, and I owe her and my wife my life. Don’t seek care at the VA!
The VA is not there for you. They are mandated to exist but determined to be a disgrace to majority of veterans. I am a veteran and will never give them that pleasure to disgrace me.
The goal is for you to end up dead. Swords-into-plow shares has some good into.
There is also a free e-book / PDF, The Veteran’s and Servicemembers Survival Guide. It is more than 600 pages. Good advice for anyone dealing with the VA.
Personally, I hate the VA. The ony people that get good medical care at the VA are employees. They cannot be fired. At my VA the coloreds don’t even try to be nice. They know there are no consequences for being racist towards white people.
A multi-centre Phase I dose-escalation study in 16 patients to assess the safety of fimaporfin (Amphinex®) induced PCI of gemcitabine, followed by systemic cisplatin/gemcitabine, has recently been completed in patients with inoperable bile duct cancer. The primary objective was to determine a tolerable dose for local bile duct treatment with fimaporfin induced PCI of gemcitabine, but the study also provided very promising early signs of tumour response. PCI Biotech has opened an IND in the US and is now planning for a multi-site pivotal Phase II study in this patient population.
An interview with Prof. Dr. med. Jörg Trojan about treatment of bile duct cancer and the fimaCHEM technology. Prof Trojan is Head of Gastrointestinal Oncology at the Cancer Centre at the University Hospital Frankfurt and one of the investigators in the fimaCHEM Phase I study in bile duct cancer. Direct link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfpztwNGnR0
Will probably be the last time I try posting any comment here. Patience ? “Spam protection system” ? I was trying to post a comment about the only promising treatment for cholangiocarcinoma. And it’s “moderated” away by your socalled spam protection system ? Why ? One link to the company behind this treatment, one link to a Youtube interview about this treatment at the University Hospital in Frankfurt ? Idiots.
All I see is a lot of negativity towards the VA. There may be a few VA clinics that need work, but I have never been to one of them. I go to the VA hospital in Orlando, FL and can only say positive things about them. I have never had to wait to see a doctor, or to get proper treatment. I have used the VA and civilian hospitals and to be honest, I will take the VA any day. I only hope they don’t phase it out and send us all to comercial meat houses like they plan to. Those for profit businesses are only there to make money for their share holders and could care less about our health.
You must be a bleeding-heart lib and a commie.
No, just my experiences with both types of hospitals. I know some have had bad experiences with the VA, but I can not say that I have. My wife goes to a local doctor and hospital and they have done nothing but screw things up. They can’t even get a prescription called in correctly, or on time. I go to the local VA hospital and they have always bent of backwards to take care of me.
There was no Vietnam War. There was only an American invasion of a foreign nation called Vietnam. Ditto Korea. Ditto Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, etc
The Evil Empire destroys everywhere it goes.
I recently spent three weeks traveling in Vietnam. Very nice people and super friendly. They refer to the war as the American War.