Roll call: Who had no risk factors?

[pigeonca]

I'm just curious.  After reading many, many posts from people who had high ALT numbers yet were not subsequently tested for hcv, I'm wondering if this was because they had none of the standard risk factors.  No IVDU, no transfusions, no employment in a medical setting.  The protocols are still not to test the general population, probably because of medical economics - we all know how much treatment costs.  Yet from my two years visiting this forum, I've read many posts from folks like myself who didn't fit into the profile and thus weren't tested until substantial liver damage had occurred, in some cases even cirrhosis.

And then I want to ask: How many of you who didn't have the usual risk factors did the following: Had dental work and/or a manicure, shared tools at work, became blood brothers with the kid next door, etc?  Who thinks everybody should be tested whenever they have blood drawn?  And does anybody have any ideas how we can communicate this need to the medical profession?

[meki]

JUST FYI...

I had a shot of RHOGAM in 1996.

I don't think blood products or hospitals were completely screening their actions at that point.

Meki

[Texas714]

Risk factors all over the place for me.
I don't know if it's just in Texas or it's a federal law, but here for the last 10 years they test all pregnant women for HCV.

[rita863]

Bill ~ you ole dog!!!  Tommt Lee and Kid Rock are lookin for ya!

[Bill1028]

I don't have any real high risk factors ...except that one night with Pamela Anderson.  Oh yeah!

[Tallahassee]

Gen. 1c. Known Risk factor: dentist
But most likely I got it at age 11 from immunizations outside of the US.
I had a period of extended fever, dark urine, etc.  but I was never officially diagnosed with Hepatitis.  Also, a Liverheard said it could be from an appendectomy surgery at ~ 11 years of age -- even though I didn't have any blood transfusions -- he said that if my surgeon had Hep. C and accidentally cut himself, he could transfer this decease to me.
I also had plasma transfusion in ~ 1992, but it is unlikely that I got my Hep. from it, because by 1995 (when I was diagnosed at age 26) I had stage 1-2 of fibrosis without any exposure to alcohol or anything else harmful ... well I was exposed to the chemical while working in the lab.

P.S. I was wondering many times… many former drug users just assume that that was the time when they got Hep. C and claim that in X number of years and heavy drinking they still don’t have a significant liver damage.  But they don’t really know when they caught this virus… it could be well more recently from, f. e., manicure.
But it really doesn’t matter how this virus found its way in our bodies … the goal is to eradicate it completely!

All the best

[Marcia2202]

G 3a, my risk factors

Rhogam shots 1981, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91

Tattoo (definitely not sterile) and IV drug use in Bali during Xmas holidays 1982/83  (During this holiday I got really sick for 3 days with high fever and vomiting, so I think that is actually how I got it)

labs, beauty parlors and dentists in Indonesia from 1978-1998

I never got checked for HCV all these years, but I don't blame anyone else than my own ignorance, for not having gotten tested. I was uninformed about the risk factors, never had elevated enzymes on routing checks and none of my doctors ever knew about any of my risk factors.

When I finally got checked, it was because of elevated enzymes, and my doctor checked for HCV right away.

Marcia