Vietnam Vets and Liver Flukes

[bobmueller]

Earlier this year the VA commissioned a study on whether Vietnam vets were more susceptible to a fairly rare form of bile duct cancer. Seems like they may be, and it's likely due to the freshwater fish they ate while in Vietnam.

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.

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 seems fairly preliminary at this point, but I thought it was worth sharing to give some of you a heads-up.

MSN-AP (Basic report)

Ars Technica (Better graphics, plus links)

[cj the pj]

What other studies will this spawn... SERE students eating rabbits of potentially unknown origin... fish... insects... etc... We have fished out of rivers and oceans on deployment and eaten things of questionable sourcing to include eggs, milk, other animal products etc... milk from goats doing the meet and greets with locals, from numerous countries. Are these parasites limited to this war and region? I will have to study up on this fish and parasite and see whats coming down the pipe.