I googled the mysterious Dr. Rudman again and came up with more interesting
stuff.  He runs a hep c clinic in Maryland and linked up with Naomi Judd
last spring.   kj

http://www.hopeforhepc.bravehost.com/

http://www.leesburg2day.com/calendar.cfm?eventid=1608

Naomi Judd to talk Hep C
Published on Sunday, April 24

By Liz Babiarz
News-Post Staff

FREDERICK -- Looking at country music star Naomi Judd's broad smile and
carefully coifed appearance, you'd think her life has been a breeze.
The truth is the self-proclaimed "ex-pert on making mistakes" has faced a
lot of challenges. She's been a pregnant teen, a victim of domestic
violence, a divorcee and a single mother on welfare.
And when she and her daughter, Wynonna, were at the peak of success as one
the most famous mother-daughter duos in country music history, Ms. Judd was
forced to retire after being diagnosed with hepatitis C.
"My world was turned upside down, as I think it is with anybody when they
are faced with a catastrophic situation," she said.
Today, she tries to spread the word about the "silent killer." She'll talk
about it at the Hope for Hepatitis C Awareness Day in Frederick on May 14.

A portion of the proceeds from the event at Gov. Thomas Johnson High
School (not a school sponsored event) -- tickets are $25 in advance and
$30 at the door $20 Medical Professionals --will go to the Frederick
County Hepatitis C Clinic, a nonprofit agency that sees 1,300 patients a
year but receives no state or federal funding. call 301.668.8268
Ms. Judd had never heard of hepatitis C when diagnosed in 1991, she said
in a recent interview. She thinks she contracted the potentially fatal
liver disease through a needle prick when she worked as a nurse at an
intensive care unit.
Doctors originally gave Ms. Judd three years to live, but she beat the
odds. Thanks to medical treatments and mind-body techniques, she was cured
of hepatitis C in 1995.
Hepatitis C virus, which is transmitted by blood to blood contact, is four
times more common than HIV. About 100,000 Marylanders are infected -- 3,500
of them in Frederick County.
"The bad news is it's killing four times more Americans than AIDS. It's an
epidemic, and it's a hideous disease," Ms. Judd said. "The good news is ...
we are getting cures now."
Hepatitis C is the only chronic viral infection that can be cured. If
caught early enough, the virus can be eliminated in about 55 percent of
patients.
Hepatitis C produces initial symptoms -- nausea, abdominal pain and
jaundice -- in only one-third of people who contract it.
These symptoms go away with time, but the virus remains, which is why it's
called the "silent killer."

"We can cure the majority of the people out there with this disease," said
Dr. Michael Rudman, medical director at the Frederick County Hepatitis C
Clinic. "... The trick is to catch people early, so we can diagnose them
and treat them." Once a patient has advanced liver disease, little can be
done beyond a transplant, Dr. Rudman said...