Hep C worries

I am engaged. My fiance informed me she didn't think we she be together. I was MAD, very MAD ! In my anger, just a couple days later I slept with my sisters friend and had unprotected sex. Vaginal and not Anal ( I understand there is a BIG difference ) . I found out from another friend of the females a few days later that the woman I had slept with's former boyfriend had diagnosed Hep C. I got back together with my fiance after I had created this disater. I am worried and I am sure you know why, am I infected ? I read on here that unprotected is DUMB ( which I DID know. ) but that unprotected vaginal sex has less of a chance of infection than "sharing needles" .  HELP ? PLEASE !

[HectorSF]

Hepatitis C is NOT and STD.
Hepatitis C is a blood to blood virus. So unless you were sharing blood the risk is minimal.

Unsafe sex is not smart because you can get STD infections, HIV and hepatitis B as these virus and diseases are passed through body fluid. Hepatitis C is not.

If you are concerned it would be wise to call your doctor and ask to be tested for STDs. And if you still are worried get tested for hepatitis C. Some of these infections take time before they will show up on tests. Ask your doctor.

Good luck.
hcetor

[einsteinus]

HVC is not a very "strong" virus and dies quickly when not in the body.  It is very hard to spread by vaginal sex unless there is some bleeding.  It can be spread by sex the more "complicated" situations you engage in. My experience is that I have been infected for at least maybe 15 years and none of my uninfected partners has every shown a positive test.  Monogamy seems to be a good practice according to the statistics ...so keep the number of orgies down!
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[orphanedhawk]

Actually, unlike HIV/AIDs, hep c can live outside the body for up to 4 days.

However it's not an STD and there has to be blood to blood transmission with an infected party to contract the virus.

[einsteinus]

True and under favorable conditions maybe months or more.  

[orphanedhawk]

No. Not months or more.
Studies show that hep C can live between 16 hours and no longer than 4 days outside the body.

Please do not pass on anymore misinformation about this virus.
If you don't know the answer, do a search.

We get people here all the time scared about getting hep C.
It is imperative that we do not spread misinformation.

You have gone from saying it dies quickly outside the body to it can live for months.
Both are wrong.
Please, check your facts before replying.

[Dannyboi7]

Where I'm from it is considered an STD.Even though the risk is extremely low it can be transmitted that way.There as be a blood to blood contact during the sexual act.One example,the woman as her period,the man as a herpes sore,wam bam thankyou mam it as been transmitted sexually.

[einsteinus]

• As published in a February 2010 edition of Virology Journal, Chinese researchers determined that HCV could survive in a liquid medium for two days at 98ºF (body temperature),16 days at 77 ºF and at least six weeks at 40ºF (average refrigerator temperature).

• Presented in February 2010 at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses & Opportunistic Infections, American researchers found that under the right circumstances, HCV remained viable in a syringe for up to 63 days. Circumstances that increased HCV infectivity include syringes with detachable needles, lower temperature and larger volume syringes.

HCV's ability to live for a prolonged period of time outside the body under the right conditions has extraordinary implications for its transmission. Some of the carriers known to transmit the virus include straws used for nasal drug use, needles used for administering drugs, tattooing, sharing personal care equipment like razors or toothbrushes, certain sexual devices and reuse of medical equipment in healthcare settings.

[panda2526]

So....chances are......? That's a lot of what if's and perfect circumstances and perfect environments...

Having unprotected sex with someone who may or may not be infected with HCV is pretty slim you can get the virus. Most people fight the virus off even if exposed if their immune systems are healthy. We are all exposed to various Hep viruses throughout our lives and never know our bodies have fought it off.

I don't think that fear mongering about remote chances of getting the virus or not does anyone any good.  I have been married to a man for over 13 years who has had the Hep C virus for about 30 years...I have no trace of it myself, and never have shown to even have the markers that I even was exposed and fought it off at one time. His ex wife was with him for 18 years before that and she has no trace of it. Believe me, if one was to get it through sex, I would have by now! Before I knew of his virus, I have even used his razor to shave my legs at one time or another in the past. I still don't have the virus. Of course I will always keep getting checked from time to time, but it has been almost 14 years.

Not saying the "chances" aren't there, they are extremely remote.

Maybe this scare will be a lesson to the fellow, and others, who engage in what could be considered "high risk" behaviours to take the proper precautions and save themselves the stress and uncertainty.

C

[einsteinus]

I agree I have had no partners contract HCV from me even though we have had unprotected sex.  This speaks for the last 15 years. You have to try and get the virus.  But if you have some nasty sex toys ya didn't clean and they are either in a moist or cool location watch out. Most of the stuff is common sense like don't share needles or if you do don't assume that because it's day 4 one second after your partner shot up using that same syringe your safe..you may be DEAD wrong!  --that's all---

[einsteinus]

Maybe this scare will be a lesson to the fellow, and others, who engage in what could be considered "high risk" behaviours to take the proper precautions and save themselves the stress and uncertainty.


I sure hope so Panda -- if any good at comes from forums like this it's to prevent just ONE person from getting sick

[orphanedhawk]

To repeat myself, first you claim the virus dies quickly outside the body, then you claim the opposite.

We get a lot of OCD/Anxiety ridden people here and false claims only help to spread unreasonable fears about the virus. Lets stick with known facts.

Chinese researchers ? Where is the link ?
Besides,the fact that something may live in a petri dish at a certain temperature is irrelevant, except to researchers.

( I had my transplant in Taiwan and they knew practically nothing about hep C, hep B yes, not hep C)

http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/c/cFAQ.htm

How long does the Hepatitis C virus survive outside the body?

The Hepatitis C virus can survive outside the body at room temperature, on environmental surfaces, for at least 16 hours but no longer than 4 days.

[can-do-man]

While I have to agree with OH when she says at least 16 hours but no longer than 4 days on environmental surfaces... The conditions you are speaking of would be almost impossible for the average person to duplicate as it must be in liquid form and at the correct temperature so when you ad this to your post it does nothing but scare people. I mean really razors, straws, toothbrushes, tattoos, sex toys kept in a liquid form in temps at 40 degrees?

"HCV's ability to live for a prolonged period of time outside the body under the right conditions has extraordinary implications for its transmission. Some of the carriers known to transmit the virus include straws used for nasal drug use, needles used for administering drugs, tattooing, sharing personal care equipment like razors or toothbrushes, certain sexual devices and reuse of medical equipment in healthcare settings."  

[einsteinus]

Ya I was just talking about a syringe that someone left with blood in it that was a few weeks old. The person that used that syringe caught HCV. They lived in Canada at the time.  The case of the nurse infecting hundreds of patients was based on that scenario (one of moisture to preserve the virus) Once again my only point was that research on this virus surviving is far from complete. And as someone who has worked on viruses for a good portion of my life, the thing that worries me with this one is mutation(s). Granted in all likely hood these scenarios don't make transmission of the virus outside the body advantageous after 12 hours or so, however as we found out with other members of the Flaviviridae family such as the dengue virus and the West Nile virus the variants and sub genotypes can exhibit characteristics that differ from the original strains

[BigDaddy_59]

Here is a good link to HCV survivability outside of the body. The suprising number is how long in can survive in certain syringes:

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/How%20long_10.pdf

[Idyllic]

Indirect or direct exposure via human blood or an inanimate object in not the purpose of that article. It is related to the thermostability of **culture derived HCVcc, " and in this study the HCV replicon is specifically described as genotype 2a, JFH-1 strain.

It is an infectious molecular HCV clone propagated in a lab setting intended for study. One reason progress in drug development was slowed down very much is due to the lack of systems to propagate a resilient genome or HCV in cell culture (HCVcc) to use in research. It seems to me this article was an attempt to design one
___________________
Furthermore "liquid medium" means fluids other than human plasma products (check the subheadings Formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde etc.) Human serums is referenced only once that I saw in relation to its response to the stability of that particular assay.

Based on the focus of the article I will let you read how the "favorable conditions" are established and defined in the lab
___________
The Conclusion:
In summary, results presented in the current study revealed the stability of HCVcc (genotype 2a, JFH-1 strain) under different temperatures and provided quantitative evidence that heat, UVC light irradiation, aldehyde (formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde), and detergent treatments all can be used as effective means for inactivating HCVcc. However, because the stability and resistance of HCV to different inactivation methods may vary from genotype to genotype, and even strain to strain, the optimal method and procedure used for HCV inactivation should be verified under each particular circumstance.

-> We also note that the results of the current study were developed using an in vitro cell culture system based on hepatoma Huh7 cells, which may differ from normal human hepatocytes in supporting HCV infection. Thus, to what extent the procedures described herein can be applied to an in vivo setting awaits further evaluation.


Compared to other viruses, HCV is a relatively hardy pathogen.

Known to survive outside the body for days in dried blood on surfaces, Hepatitis C can persist for months in a liquid medium under favorable conditions. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
HCV can survive on environmental surfaces at room temperature for at least 16 hours but no longer than four days. In contrast, the HIV virus can only live on surfaces for several hours.

[Idyllic]

Sorry I am not trying to hijack this thread however I fear the OP may have been mislead about the nature of a rather serious issue. That article was written in 2009 and published in 2010. It looks like not far on down the line JFH-1 which is a viable strain and capable of replication plays important role in future drug development:

There are a few (free) articles that go on to show that PSI-7977 was active against G2a JFH-1 (as well as Gt 1a & 1b). They are over my head but it shows the role in that particular replicon in study and and with an actual Hepatitis C drug

This one is March 2012
Genotype and subtype profiling of PSI-7977 as a Nucloetide Inhibitor of Hepatitis C Virus.
http://aac.asm.org/content/56/6/3359.full.pdf