Health Report

Hepatitis C

Author Unknown

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Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver caused by a virus that was first discovered in 1989. Hepatitis C is spread by direct contact with the blood of an infected person.

How Do I Get Hepatitis C?

The most common means of transmission of Hepatitis C is through injection drug use. Simply sharing a container with a liquid drug preparation which several people use together to fill syringes is sufficient blood-to-blood contact to spread Hepatitis C. Anyone who used any injectable drugs, even once in the past, has a high probability of having Hepatitis C, and may not be aware of their infection.

Another way of being exposed to the virus is through blood transfusion, although the risk of getting hepatitis C infection in this way is now extremely tow given the precautions that are taken in screening blood donors.

A variety of other ways of acquiring hepatitis H have been described these include tattooing, body piercing, and acupuncture.

And it is theoretically possible to spread the virus from one person to another by sharing razors or toothbrushes because a very small amount of blood from an infected person on a razor or toothbrush could enter another user's blood through very small nicks or sores.

The virus is known to be present in the menstrual blood of infected women, and could theoretically infect their sexual partners during intercourse.

The virus is, however, not present in most other body secretions, including semen, urine and saliva unless they contain blood particles, and is not present in the air infected people breathe out.

The risk of transmission of this virus by sexual means, either heterosexual or homosexual, is very low, and there is debate about whether or not it is ever transmitted by intercourse.

Of course, people with multiple sexual partners should always practice safe sex, not only to decrease the small risk of Hepatitis C transmission, but to decrease the risk of acquiring other infections.

People found to have this infection need not become socially isolated to fulfill their responsibility to others around them, but some common sense precautions are necessary.

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