Hello Folks:
Today’s blog should be of interest to everyone with hepatitis C as well as those that might be at risk of being infected.
INTRODUCTION
Many people infected with hepatitis C are just now becoming aware of their infection or are starting to develop serious symptoms of liver disease. Our society will be dealing with the repercussions of these infections for many years to come, especially as those who contracted hepatitis C more than 30 years ago develop illness and later stage of liver disease.
HOW IS HEPATITIS C SPREAD?
Hepatitis C is spread through blood to blood contact. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about 10% of those with HCV contracted it through contaminated blood transfusions, hemodialysis or blood products received before 1992 when a careful screening process was begun.
Today in the United States, it is estimated that between 60% – 90% of people who are infected with HCV are IV drug users sharing contaminated needles an equipment.
It is estimated the 15% of the people with hepatitis C have been infected through sexual activity. While this may seem high, it is actually relatively low as the number of people who have sex versus the number of people who used IV drugs or have hemophilia or had transfusions is much much higher.
There have been rare reports of infection through monogamous sexual activity with a long-term infected partner and from mother to newborn child, but these reports may also include folks who may have other undetected blood exchanges (risk factors) as well.
There have been reports of transmission of HCV through sexual intercourse outside menses and men who have sex with men, however the discussion is actually whether this is possible without the presence of a skin or tissue tear or some other disease that provides an opening in the skin of both the infected person and the potential recipient. The CDC reports that high-risk sexual activity increases the risk of transmission by as much as 20%
Also, according to the CDC, about 10% of those with HCV report they don’t know how they contracted the virus.
Exposure to HCV includes the following:
•injecting drug use and other shared drug paraphernalia
•transfusion or organ transplant from infected donor
•occupational exposure to blood (needle sticks)
•iatrogenic (unsafe injections)
•birth to an HCV-infected mother
•sex with infected partner (rare; risk associated with multiple sexual partners and exposure to blood)
•combat exposure, especially among veterans of the Vietnam conflict
The HCV virus can live outside the body (on a surface at room temperature) for anywhere from 16 hours to 4 days (CDC), and it is not easily killed with chlorine bleach, which does kill HIV rather dependably.
In a future blog, I will focus more on prevention of infection and risk reduction.
For those of you who have not seen my free Special Report please check out
The First 3 Steps To Conquer Hepatitis C .
See you soon!
Yours in health,
Doc Misha
P.S. Here is a previously related blog post
