Qi Spot

This is a new low.  Hitting below the belt.  No, taking a jackhammer and hitting below the belt.

“Acupuncture Spreads Disease” (http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/acupuncture-spreads-disease-20100319-qjgo.html)

My first reaction is: of course it does.  Just like ANY OTHER MEDICAL PROCEDURE, acupuncture CAN spread disease, if done improperly.  But you don’t hear the media say that oh no…

First they say there’s no scientific basis.  Then research destroys that argument.

Then they say there’s no evidence.  Then research shows otherwise.

Now they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel just to discourage people from a safe (if done properly) procedure with less side effects (if any) than conventional therapies just so Big Pharma can continue hooking us on drugs.

Many people don’t read past the headline.  This headline implies that STANDARD acupuncture spreads disease.  The first paragraph, while finally implying that it is not acupuncture itself but substandard sterilization procedures cause disease, makes you forget that fact by pairing it with HIV and Hepatitis… causing panic in the reader.

Bacterial infections, hepatitis B and C, and possibly even HIV are being transmitted via acupuncture through the use of contaminated needles, cotton swabs and hot packs, experts have warned.

Note that he says “contaminated”.  However, by that time you’ve already read “hepatitis” and “HIV” despite the fact that to get HIV through acupuncture, you hypothetically have to dip the needle in an infected patient’s blood, and while it’s still fresh (HIV dies in dried blood) poke it in ANOTHER patient.

Even the article (begrudgingly, and at the END) says as much.

“Although no clear evidence exists to support a link between acupuncture and HIV infection, there are reports of patients with HIV who had no risk factors other than acupuncture,” it said.

Yes, I had heard about this in a lecture where CDC numbers are mentioned.  The number of these reports? uh ONE? (http://www.hivatwork.org/tools/factshts.htm) and that was only because they couldn’t think of any other reason.  Similar to those babies in eastern europe that tested positive for HIV despite having HIV negative mothers – so they couldn’t think of any other reason except contaminated needles.

In an editorial published in the British Medical Journal, microbiologists at the University of Hong Kong said the number of reported acupuncture-related infections worldwide was the tip of an iceberg and they called for tighter infection control measures.

“To prevent infections transmitted by acupuncture, infection control measures should be implemented, such as use of disposable needles, skin disinfection procedures and aseptic techniques,” wrote the researchers, led by Patrick Woo, microbiology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Woo and his colleagues said acupuncture may be risky as needles are inserted up to several centimetres beneath the skin and they warned of a new syndrome – acupuncture mycobacteriosis – in the 21st century.

“This is an infection caused by mycobacteria that rapidly grow around the acupuncture insertion point as a result of contaminated cotton wool swabs, towels and hot-pack covers. There is a long incubation period but the infection usually leads to large abscesses and ulcers,” they wrote.

oh so THESE don't cause disease if improperly used?

“So far, more than 50 cases have been described globally. In most cases … bacteria were transmitted from the patient’s skin flora or the environment because of inadequate skin disinfection before acupuncture,” they wrote.

So this can happen in ANY penetrative procedure with inadequate skin disinfection.  Why not say “inadequate skin disinfection causes disease” oh! that won’t get people to read the article! That also won’t be bashing acupuncture per se!

There have been at least five outbreaks of hepatitis B virus infection that are linked to acupuncture.

In most of these cases, the sources were infected patients and the virus was transmitted through dirty needles, although in one case, it was the acupuncturist who was the source, they said.

Let’s see in China a good number of patients are already Hep B positive.  How do we know that they didn’t already have it in the first place?  This is also why needles are never to be re-used.  If the physician doesn’t practice good practice guidelines, then blame the idiot not the acupuncture procedure!

Funny about the acupuncturist being the source.  What did he do? Take a needle, jab himself, then jab the patient?

Using these hands with anything can spread disease. Why single out acupuncture?

And finally:

The paper also laid out the possibility of transmission of hepatitis C and HIV via acupuncture.

Yeah, the “possibility”.  Why, because it doesn’t happen that way.  Geez. Scare tactics.