Contraction of any Hepatitis

[Johnny98765]

To whom it may concern,
        I was curious if there is any chance that any type of Hepatitis can be contracted in any way possible through saliva? and/or sexual contact?
                          Greatly Appreciated,
                            John

[AK - Hepper]

What are you doing all the way down here, did you get lost? hehe, nobody was supposed to see me practicing :-) Yes it is very nice up here, a tad on the chilly side these days, but the winter has it's own special beauty too, summers are awesome! when it's not raining that is

[Ambush]

Hi Timbo ~ Watched a great PBS special on Alaska last night.  Made me think of you.  That's one beautiful place you've got there!
ambush :)

[AK - Hepper]

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<br><hr><P><marquee direction="left"><Font face="Comic Sans MS "size=+12<b>Timbo</b></font></marquee><br><BR>

[AK - Hepper]

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[AK - Hepper]

Blah blah blah<a href=http://www.adn.com/photos/v-28/>avalanche</a> blah blah</font><BR>
<br><hr><P><marquee behavior="alternate"><Font face="Comic Sans MS"size=+3<b>Timbo</b></font></marquee><br>

[AK - Hepper]

<a href=http://www.adn.com/photos/v-28/>avalanche</a>

[AK - Hepper]

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[AK - Hepper]

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<br><hr><P><marquee direction="left"><Font face="Brush Script MT"size=+3<b>Timbo</b></font></marquee><br><BR>

[suho]

yes, it's still 1 %.

[Worried*hopefullynot*sick]

i know all of you have been talkin alot about this but i really need an answer. i just kissed a girl the other night. it was a french kiss for about 10 seconds or so. It was the first time i ever kissed her. Well she just told me the other day That she kissed a person about a month before who is claiming they have hepatitis. i dont know what kind or anything. she kissed this other person twice. and then kissed me once. I am just really wanting to know if i have a chance of getting it. please help


--b

[Artison]

Hi. I was still wondering if you answered the question Johnny98765 asked about contracting any strain of Hepatitis through saliva? Like could you get if from drinking after someone? I just wanted to know because a friend of mine who is is biology teacher told me it is very possible.
Well please let me know.
Thank you
Lindsay

[mrmike62]

In the United States, the estimated seroprevalence of HCV is 2 to 3 percent among partners of HCV-infected persons who are in long-term monogamous relationships and is 4 to 6 percent among persons with multiple sex partners, sex workers, and men who have sex with men (those at risk for sexually transmitted diseases). One study found the risk of HCV infection to be threefold higher for female than male sexual partners. Thus, sexual partners of male and female patients with hepatitis C should be tested for this infection. For heterosexual, discordant monogamous couples, the risk of transmission is estimated to be only 0 to 0.6 percent annually. Because of the low risk of HCV transmission, monogamous couples do not need to use barrier protection (condoms) although they should be advised that condoms may reduce the risk of transmission. However, HCV-infected individuals with multiple sexual partners or in short-term relationships should be advised to use condoms to prevent transmission of HCV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Sharing common household items that may be contaminated with blood, such as razors and toothbrushes, is another potential source of transmission of HCV that should be avoided. There is no evidence that kissing, hugging, sneezing, coughing, food, water, sharing eating utensils or drinking glasses, casual contact, or other contact without exposure to blood is associated with HCV transmission.
"for hetero mono couples the estimated risk is ZERO to .6% annually"..which means there is some consideration whether it can be sexually transmitted at all,up to about 1 in 200..I've seen the estimates also at 2% over 20 years..thats 1 in 1000 per year..also:Can I give hepatitis C to my sex partner?
Yes, but it is not likely. Compared to hepatitis B virus and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it is less likely that you will spread the hepatitis C virus to your sex partner.

If you have one long-term sex partner, you do not necessarily need to change your sex habits. But, if either you or your partner is worried about the small chance of spreading the hepatitis C virus, you can use latex condoms. This will make it almost impossible to spread the virus. Long-term partners of people with hepatitis C should get tested for the virus. If the test is negative, you will probably not need to repeat it.

and on this site:I appreciate your rather succinct question. Several studies have looked for the hepatitis C viral RNA in human semen. All of the studies I consider to be reputable have not been able to find it. I hope this is a succinct answer to your question.

[BobK]

It is quite telling after your [proclamations that you "know" how to read and interpret studies followed by your bogus statistical interpretation of the risk associated with sexual transmission.

1% would be the risk for each and every sexual encounter.  The risk is not additive...that is 10 sex acts doesn't amount to a 10% accumulated risk the risk on the 11th or 1000th encounter is still 1%.  You cannot multiply the relative risk by number of years and get a "new" realtive risk rate....well I guess you can but it si not correct...back to basic stats for you!!!


regards,
BobK

[whoohoo]

"hepatitis A is never transmitted through sex is misinformation."

Again, do you yourself, or your doctor, know of even 1 documented case of someone who got Hep A from straight sex?

Similarly, the CDC website did not provided any documented case at all of anyone who got Hep A through sex.  I know of no one who knows a documented case of someone got hep A thru straight ******* around.

I'm always, and you should too, be wary of any website that do not provide legit references or legit studies to back up their claims.  I notice the website did not provide any references nor back-up data or studies. Also, just because it's in the CDC website, doesn't automatically guarantee that something is absolutely correct, or should be taking as cast in stone.  Also, how often do they check and update these info.  Heck, for all I know, the website info could have been been put up a web gov bureaucrat, and not doctors.  Medicine is constantly changing field as new discoveries and new findings are made, and old info get obselete.

I encourage you to print out this CDC page on Hep A and show it to your doctor, or better, several doctors, and see what their responses will be.  You'll be surprise.

As far as I'm concern, to make a claim without veriable legit backup info or legit studies is spreading misinformation, like what you're doing.

"Also, as the CDC guidelines make clear, to claim there is no difference between the risk of sexual transmission of HBV and HCV is misinformation."

Where in the CDC site that show there is differences in risk for B & C?  

The site clear shows that they're both blood-borne diseases, as oppose to A, which is a food-borne disease, and can be transmitted sexually.  How's that different?

Again, you're up to your spreading of misinfo **** again by accusing other of misinfo.

[willing]

as far as I can tell whoohoo's extrapolation of the CDC Sentinel County data is nonsense. If I'm wrong someone please correct me. As part of its surveillance of viral hepatitis throughout the US the CDC monitors all occurrences of acute hepatitis in 6 counties selected to be representative of the US. In these counties all reported cases of acute viral hepatitis are monitored and CDC contractors interview the patients. Part of the  interview asks about risk factors. Overall this data shows that in 15-20% of cases, the patient reported that sex with one or more infected individuals in the previous 6 months  was the primary risk factor. (see "Sexual Activity" under "Epidemiology" of the following (long) <a href="http://www.thebody.com/cdc/hepc/hepc1.html">CDC report</a>). Two details: the sentinel counties surveillance makes no attempt at tracking concordant-coinfection (ie do the two partners share a related viral strain?); and only reported acute cases are monitored (with HCV, acute infection is often asymptomatic, so we're looking at a subset of new infections).

Increasing this 15-20% by a considering a longer time period makes little sense: if you got the virus from sex with an HCV infected individual 5 years ago you would not be treated for symptoms of acute HCV now. As you point out, the acute period of infection is limited to about 6 months.

As discussed in the above CDC report, there is a wide discrepancy between the acute risk-factor data and the monogamous transmission data. The obvious implication is that as the studies add more controls : one partner, few additional risk factors, and concordant co-infection, the estimate for the rate of transmission goes way down. We'll never get to Terriri's hypothetical box so we'll probably never know the "true"  transmission rate but there's no basis in the Sentinel County data to assume it's <em>higher</e< than 15-20%.

[layla]

Isn't 1% always 1%? If you have 300 heppers and take 1% that is 3 heppers. Right? Now miltiply that buy 30 years. Now you have 300 x 30 = 9000 heppers. Now your 1% which is 3 x 30 years = 90 or also 1% of 9000. Please correct me if I am wrong. It's still 1%
Acute hepatitis is normally about 6 month. I believe everyone here has cronic HCV not acute. LL

[totemman]

I dont know why these people have such a hard on for you maby it's because your ALT's are lower from alternative means. It seams like your energy levil is doing well. ******* great man!

Everyone should remember we all need suport!!!

Stop all this unnecessary badgering

Totemman

[willing]

6 months in a box huh? and with lab technicians watching closely to ensure all contact was strictly sexual? sounds pretty kinky. All these transmission studies are bound to have big margins of error but the ones that don't verify that the two viral strains are closely related are pretty sketchy IMHO. Still, flawed as they may be, they are important. If you allow the public perception to get paranoid enough the HCV-infected might end up getting arrested for crying in a theater! well, maybe not quite...

[willing]

whoohoo: am I more likely to ingest virus-laden feces by eating in a restaurant or having  unprotected sex with someone infected? I think I'll pass on that one, but for the CDC to list sex partners among those at risk of infection justifies  "readily transmitted" in my mind. See also the second question in this CDC <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/a/faqa.htm">FAQ</a>. To claim that hepatitis A is never transmitted through sex is misinformation.

Also, as the CDC guidelines make clear, to claim there is no difference between the risk of sexual transmission of HBV and HCV is misinformation.

The quote you selected from Terrault's review emphasizes the importance of carefully quantifying the risk of sexual transmission. This is hard because humans are not laboratory rats and it's  hard to isolate sexual transmission from other risk factors. Studies like the "HCV-partners" study which have verified that hypothetical co-infections actually share the same genotype and  have added controls to exclude other forms of transmission should be more credible than studies that haven't included these precautions.  This is still an unresolved question however and, on this point, I suppose you're right: bias is not misinformation.

AK : I think the usual definition of chronic infection with HCV is detection of the virus 6-12 months after infection ((<a href="http://hepatology2.aasldjournals.org/scripts/om.dll/serve?action=searchDB&searchDBfor=art&artType=fullfree&id=ajhep0360s21#head4">see</a>).

[terriri]

In my opinion all studies of hepatitis c transmission are flawed. We all know hepatitis 1 is the most common in the U.S.A but the majority of us are not 100% sure of how we got it, we can only guess. If you think about it, the fashion of the day involves plastic/cosmetic surgery, dentistry & cosmetic dentistry, electrolysis, men get shaved regularly at hair salons, women are getting acrylic nails, manicures & pedicures, cesarean sections have been on the rise, and there is also body piercing, and tattoo

[AK - Hepper]

Isn't there a difference between the acute phase and the chronic phase, and how long does the acute phase typically last, surely not 30 years?

[whoohoo]

"hepatitis-A is readily transmitted sexually."

Your CDC link DID NOT say that.  YOU said that.  The CDC link just shows all the possible ways that Hep A may be transmitted,  but then anything is possible.  I'm guessing they did so to cover all the bases, just to be on the safe side.  The question here is not whether it is possible or not, but how LIKELY is it to get Hep A sexually?  The CDC site did NOT address this, nor did it use the word "readily".   Furthurmore, the CDC site clearly stated that:

"TRANSMISSION HAV is found in the stool (feces) of persons with hepatitis A.
  
HAV is usually spread from person to person by putting something in the mouth (even though it may look clean) that has been contaminated with the stool of a person with hepatitis A."

Willing, do you yourself (or your doctor, for that matter) know of even 1 person that got Hep A from sexual intercourse?  Also, the recent Hep A outbreak from eating at a Mexican restaurant in western PA goes to enforce how Hep A is usually transmitted.  Furthermore, how likely is it to ingest someone's feces when you're having regular sexual intercourse?  I rest my case.

I find it amusing that you accusing someone with spreading misinformation, while you yourself is doing exactly that (repeatedly and consistently, I may add)!

Concerning Hep C transmission, go back and reread your own Hepatology link above CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY, and you will see that that HCV tranmsission via sex listed in this link is very significant:

"How prevalent is the risk factor of sexual activity in acute hepatitis C?  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collects detailed risk factor data on cases of acute hepatitis C identified through the Acute Hepatitis Sentinel County Surveillance program. Between 1995 and 2000, 18% of individuals with acute community-acquired HCV infection reported sexual contact with an anti-HCV

[willing]

many thanks for the good wishes - I appreciate them. Doing better today - seems like no how long you stay on this stuff you never get used to the "Mack truck" days.

[LvdByGod]

i only just jumped in. i had no idea that there was a post that was removed. everything i said was based on the way the post reads now. so..........how can we have intellegent conversation if they take certain posts off and not others??????? please disreguard my former post. hope you understand.