Heterosexual transmission of Hepatitis C through genital herpes

I am confused. Some sites say hepatitis C is not an STD while others say genital herpes plays a role in the heterosexual transmission .Maybe not a lot of research has not been done on this yet but as someone who suffers from both I am concerned about passing this on through perhaps even a careful monogamous heterosexual relationship.
F.

[jmjm530]

I would think you'd want to use condoms at least if you had active/open sores. This goes for whether you have HCV or not.

[Myown]

My own personal opinion is that it can be considered an STD because woman get micro tears during sex. Though I've been told it is blood to blood tranmission, in my opinion, any body fluid would contain it.Just an opinion. EBV is called "kissing disease," because it is able to spread through saliva. Nobody dies from that one, so it is ok to say its highly contagious.It won't cause public panic. Well, if that virus can spread through saliva or fluids, why can't this one or Hiv?

Since the incubation time SEEMS to be years(?) for these virus's, it would make it look like Hiv and hep C IS hard to contract except under "perfect hep c enviorment,"(sp?) such as blood to blood.

As I said, this is only my opinion. I can be very wrong at times and this might be one of them.

Hope all works out for you. I'm sure it will.

[jmjm530]

Never made fun of that site. Just wanted to make the point that I found the CDC's site more representative of the main forms of transmission, as others here have also. Scott posted the site in one context and one thread, I responded in another thread in another context and in a satirical way. I think it was appropriate that Scott posted the site, and I think my comments were appropriate. The nice thing about this place is that we can all express our opinions and sometimes with some humor. It's the diversity of opinion that helps folks make up their own minds.

-- Jim

[jmjm530]

I think it also important to note that one of our members opened a very funny thread regarding HCV infected ants and my reference was to that, not to the aforementioned web site. I'm through on this subject. Congratulations on your 2 year qualitative.

[jmjm530]

My post crossed your first post. I agree on national HCV testing, as I believe is happening with AIDs, at least in terms of guidelines. That said, there were some studies posted where they analyzed the incidence of the HCV virus in certain military populations whrere they could compell everyone to be tested.  The figures came out very close to the 2% the CDC figure. But 2%, 10% or 1%, people should know their status. I believe I posted those links in a previous discussion.

As far as sexual transmission, not surprisingly you read one thing one place and another thing in another. I believe the Japanese did a study that showed a low but noticeable rate of transmission in marriage. Then there's another figure -- can't remember -- for folks together 30 years. And then the whole thing about multiople partners (STDs?) and rought sx. Hopefully, there will be a hepatitis c vaccine soon, so all of this will become academic.  

Remind me to avoid SuperCuts. LOL.

Hope this finds you well.

-- Jim

[cuteus]

hum, "creative ways of transmission:", kind of doesn't sit right, even as a joke, when referred to rare ways of transmission.  That site has links to actual reports and studies that confirm some of the 'creative' ways.

myown, HCV does not incubate for years I hope you know that.  HCV enters the host, which in turn produces antibodies and other cells to combat it, and not succeding in most cases, remains at an ongoing battle for the rest of your life.  Most people will develop antibodies within 6 to 8 wks of infection. In the meantime, the virus has learned to disable your immune system to make itself at home forever almost immediately.
The fluids would have to contain blood in order to transmit the virus via that route and the other person would have to have an open cut/sore through which hcv can enter the bloodstream. If the fluids alone could infect, you would see more family members positive for HCV, from sharing utensils.

[jmjm530]

I am convinced it WILL happen. As you say, the WHEN is the question. Hopefully, we will know a lot more during 2007 when the Vertex SVR trial data comes in. Beyond that, the experimental vaccine approach for viral eradication and possibly a future vaccine to prevent non-infected folks from getting the virus -- both are certainly on my wish list. Glad you're feeling better.

-- Jim

[Snookmiester]

Here is one of the best studies on the subject..
<a href="http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hep_c/news/2004/062104_c.html">sexual transmission</a>

I do however believe that HCV <strong>can</strong> be transmitted sexually if a herpes sore is present. You would have an open sore, so risk of infection would be greatly increased. If you have an open sore, strap up, use a condom..

[jmjm530]

Yeah...fond memories of that raw, sore, sex from my younger days :)
Your points are well taken. Also, with some medical conditions blood can be found in semen or urine which could conceivable be transmitted in some sexual scenarios.

Thanks for asking how I'm doing. Just tried an AD (Wellbutrin) a few days ago and had to come off it -- sore throat, head congestion, dizziness and panic like anxiety reaction. Not exactly what I had in mind. LOL. Or maybe it was just a bad cold I coincidentally got at the same time. Anyway took a valium that cooled my head and staying in bed today watching Tiger Woods win the Buick Open for my cold.

Anything new on your end?

-- Jim

[timedog]

As they now know herpes can be trasmitted when there is not an open sore so what does that mean to this thread and line of thought.

[scubadiver30]

Well, I have to say that after being married for 15 years my wife is HCV free (and we have had pretty raw sex over the years).
I figured I got infected due to my coke use back in the 80s but right now I'm doubing it

I do remember having sex several times with a girl from genova (northern italy) back in the 90's (she had been menstruating once) :-(
Right know my doc says the 2b geno is highly unusual in Europe (is mostly 1a and 1b) and I read in a european medical journal the only region with high incidence of 2bs is precisely northern Italy??? It even had maps that said that genos 3 and 4 are more common in Asia and 1 in America. Shoot, so much for the STD issue. I'm trying to contact my exgirlfriend with no success to know about her HCV status, but I know she did hard drugs back then.
Maybe the 2 percent ST HCV incidence could be higher?
scuba

[Forseegood]

From all the reading I've done on this, the medical community believes that although it can happen, getting infected through conventional heterosexual intercourse is rare. They only believe this because of the goodly amount of couple samplings they have taken- where one partner has it, and the other doesn't....even though the two people in the couple have been together having sex for a long time without protection. This is only statistical data....

When they looked at the same stats on couple samplings for HIV and co-infected peopl for example, it didn't shake out the same way, so they extrapolated from that, that HIV is easier to contract sexually,  ...this is mostly what they have,  statistical data...

I'm sure most people have seen this study

http://tinyurl.com/fvvvh