The US provender and Drug Administ...

The US provender and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first over-the-counter family collection kit for testing for antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) the greatest in quantity common bloodborne infection in the United States and a major cause of liver damage. Hepatitis C virus is responsible for 8000 to 10000 deaths in the United States by means of year.

The kit, for which users do not ne a prescription, allows a user to garner up a sample of blood at hearth and mail it to a designated laboratory for analysis. The user receives the terminates anonymously by telephone, using a unique identification number. The be deriveds are available four to 10 business days from the laboratory's receipt of the relations sample.

The proof shows whether the user has till doomsday contracted HCV, unless the user was expos in the six month before sending in the relations sample, which may be too early for the exhibition to detect the virus. The proof does not show whether the infection is active--the user must pass through additional testing and evaluation according to a physician.

FDA Talk Paper: FDA Approves First place of abode Test for Hepatitis C Virus (new release, Washington, DC: US subsistence and Drug Administration, April 29 1999) 1-2

COPYRIGHT 1999 Association of Operating scope Nurses, Inc.

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