Wake*up call for Lacey

Is it possible to contract Hepatits C from smoking weed with someone, in joint form, who has it?

[Trinity4]

NO, unless there was blood on the joint and you had an open sore on your lips.  Even then, blood from the joint must get into your bloodstream.  Saliva will not transmit hepc.

[Force]

It's funny you brought this up I just had a conversation with my one of my friends last night and we were wondering the same.
I think your risks would increase even more if you were to be passing one around in a group

[Force]

I guess it might have happend already...check out this link.

http://hamiltonhepc.net/harm.html

[fretboard]

I'm glad you put up that link, ppl need to know that it's alot easier to transmit this infection than alot of ppl think.  The days of casual drug use are over, if you wanna smoke a little pot, smoke it yourself alone.  If that takes the fun out of it then you don't have a problem with it anyways.    

[HARRYBEADS]

Out side a Doctors office in a Toronto hospital there are posters that show the different ways to get Hep, they are, a straw from snortin the coke, the fit, sex...they only show condoms, and smokin the pot in a pipe and a joint.

Clinton might have it!

Harry

[lyncord]

I don't think you get hep c from what you mention, but i know this... you may get hep c from sharing a razor, toothbrush and rough sex with a hep c positive person.  Saliva cannot transmit.  You get hep c from infected person  thru blood.

[pjhep80]

i think the risk of getting hep from sharing a joint with someone  is wayyyyyy less than zero thats ridiculous if it were true the whole dam world would be infected

[meki]

I honestly believe HCV MUST --- absolutely MUST be injected into the blood stream.


I have yet to meet someone who has not had a shot - or intravenous transfusions or some sort of blood interaction that has HCV.

Everyone who has HCV has had a shot of some sort - has had dental work or has had blood to blood interaction (think transfusion)....

I just don't see the possibilities of passing this virus through simple mouth contact --- Minus the possibilities of sores on someone's mouth --- passing it to someone who has an openly bleeding wound.

If HCV were THAT easy to get --- EVERY FREAKING BODY WOULD HAVE IT

Not to mention --- A mother GIVING BIRTH to a child only has a 5% transmission rate --- and that's a child surviving OFF of the Infected mother --- blood - bodily fluids, etc.

So --- Y'all need to THINK before you start saying things like passing a joint or a cigarette or simple kissing are ways of transmission

Monogamous couples in multiple studies having sex and living together have NOT passed it to each other

What this says to me --- by saying this kind of stuff ---- is that you're ready to make the world believe HCV should be treated like leprosy --- and that kind of condemnation is not acceptable to me.

Already there is enough stigma attached to HCV --- this kind of commentary is silly --- Yanno?

Folks --- you really need to think before you pass on information --- I'm not advocating passing the joint --- but I am advocating common sense

That website certainly doesn't say anything about passing a joint and catching HCV.

Meki

[fretboard]

"I just don't see the possibilities of passing this virus through simple mouth contact --- Minus the possibilities of sores on someone's mouth --- passing it to someone who has an openly bleeding wound".

Exactly, so I don't see the need to say that passing a joint around is totally safe.  So I won't say it, on the same note you didn't say it either.  I don't think anyone on the board was saying anything, other than making a point.  Nobody on here wants to add to the stigma, someone was asking for a wakeup call and that's what they got.  

peace

[monkeyfro]

i have only posted here a couple of times, but read the posts often.  I think you are correct, the stigma can be really bad, some people still think I have HIV when I tell them I have hep C and am going to start tx.  I have probably had this for 30 some yrs, I had 3 children after I was infected and (thank God) none of them are positive.  I also shared razors with my daughters for years not knowing about the disease and they are still neg.  I suppose anything is possible, but to contract the disease by passing a joint seems quite rare.  My guilt runs deep tho for the years before the test when I donated blood thinking I was saving lives when I was really passing this insidious disease on to innocent people, I think of that often when I see people who contracted it that way, I did this to myself, they didn't......

side note I have yet to be approved for the meds from Roche so tx is still a ways off, hope to start soon.

[sunqueen]

I don't believe that HCV can only be passed via some type of injection. I did not do IV drugs and never received a transfusion. I was however exposed to other people's blood regularly. I routinely helped people who had major lacerations, chopped off digits or got mangled in commercial kitchen equipment. This went on for *years* and during the pre-AIDS/HIV years, foodservice workers were not taught or required to use universal precautions. I used knives and equipment that could have been tainted. I always had some cut, burn or nick on my own skin.

I was always very healthy. I was suddenly very sick in the 80s. I was weak, had fevers, rash, pain everywhere and could not get off the couch for weeks. My doctor said I had "viremia."  I wonder if I was in the acute phase and no one bothered to do further tests. I'll never know.  For the love of all that is good in the universe, let's recognize that there are other transmission routes that involve exposure to blood. I'm not so crazy happy when I get the "uh-huh" look from other people because I have an illness most commonly associated with IV drug use.

[lolitriqui]

I can't believe i'm reading this nonsense!!!

[monkeyfro]

Could you expand on your comment, plz?

[Marcia2202]

HCV is a blood borne disease. Sharing cigarettes or joints is not listed as one of the possible ways to contract it.

Marcia

[Rockerforlife]

I have read that cold sores can harbour the viruses like hep and hiv...if you have a cold sore inside of your mouth and its in the saliva...from the cold sore...isnt there a chance of infection...??...ill try to fing that link about cold sores and viruse tranmission...my advice is to not share ANY BODY FLUIDS...if ya dont know the person....

[Rockerforlife]

news is out to crack usere who share pipes spread hep and hiv

[Rockerforlife]

The term they use to define waht im saying is "piggyback"....ive read that  some viruses can pass with other ones....like the herpes virus can tag along with the hiv and hep...i know this sounds scary...im still looking for this info on google...i know i read it in somewhere.

[lolitriqui]

well, if you could infect yourself by smoking a joint, hepc wouldn't be all that different to the flu,no???? so the whole planet would have it; it's blood to blood; relationship of 30 years has a 1% chance ofinfection; that's medicine's way of saying it don't happen. smoke as many joints you want; it's more likely the sky is falling on your head

[CMcH]

If you can get it through saliva you would also get it from kissing. I believe there is more contact from that. I have had this for a long time and believe to have gotten it from exposure at the hospital. I have smoked pot with many a friend from a long time ago and they do not have it. I have kissed and had children with my husband and none of them have it. Blood to blood needs to be involved so I would not spend a lot of time worrying about that.

[ranman56]

Go to www.chinaherbs.net Iv'e had HVC geno 1b for over 35 years. Did the interferon and riboviron for 48 weeks and it didn't work. Iv'e been on TCM traditional chinese medicine from this Hep C institute for 8 mnths with no O side effects and the results are so positive . I should be clear and free of the HVC by christmas, at a fraction of the cost of the big pharma's so called cure. I only wish I had found this site and Dr. Han before I went on the so called western cure. Tell Dr. Han Randy directed you, you won't be disapointed.

[R Glass]

“Riboviron”  After 48 weeks, you should be able to at least spell it correctly
Ladies and Gentelmen,,,,,,,LET THE GAMES BEGAN

[Rockerforlife]

If you believe that herbs will cure you hep c....you are mistaken my friend....sorry,but what in Gods name thinks you will be ured...do you have any backup?

[eureka254]

tsk tsk... glass... and the 1st to cast a stone? ;)

[alagirl]

just to respond to your comment, there was an association noted in the uk among gay men testing positive for hcv and those having concomitant std's.  I thought of it when I read your comment.  It is info from the UK:

http://www.natap.org/2003/april/043003_7.htm

"Researchers from the Royal Free Hospital identified an association between acute hepatitis C infection and having a concomitant sexually transmitted infection. Twenty cases of acute hepatitis C were identified between October 2002 and January 2003. In total eight of the men had syphilis, two had recently acquired HIV infection, two had gonorrhoea and two had herpes simplex virus."

[R Glass]

  
The horns growing out of my head are only a birth defect.

[alagirl]

(yawning) - when you "clear" your hcv with herbs, be sure to scan all of your bloodwork and medical evidence for us so that we can see the great miracle.  

[eureka254]

LOL

You don't believe EVERYTHING the doctors tell you, do you? ;)

[merryBe]

O, don't freak here, but I'm going to tell you what happened to me this last week.

I have HCV.

I also have been having problems with my sinuses resulting in blood in my mucus.

It occured to me on about the third day of seeing blood in my kleenex that there was no way for me to gauge how many blood cells might be in my mouth at any given moment.

Just the fact that some blood vessels were breaking, and some blood was in mu spittum, meaning it was trickling down my throat....well it convinced me all over again of a decision I made a year ago. That was not to share forks, or saliva with anyone.

It's not a choice most people make, since first you must get the HCV blood into the other persons mouth or on their lips, and THEN they say there must be an open sore or break in their skin to allow that blood to absorb into their bloodstream....but it's still not entirely safe. Not entirely ever.  There are a number of HCV patients whose only known exposure was sharing a straw or rolled bill with other cocaine snorters (where nose bleeing is common) so the real answer here is, it's unusual, unlikely, but not impossible to transmit this way.

mb

[HARRYBEADS]

It's common knowledge here in Canada that the crack pipe can and does transmit the HEP. We give out free pipes, and or syringes in certain areas of town.
  
  Go down to the local crackhead corner and have a gander at the way that glass tube, sharp at both ends cause it's glass, is being handed around to all them healthy lookin folk, and have a blast or two off it yourself if ya think it ain't possible.

hARRY

[jonney4141]

i am just going to be safe in all area's, who knows down the road if all of a sudden they say it's can be caused from sharing utensils or saliva or whatever. look how long it took for this to come about? so i am just gonna play it safe. God knows how many people i have been in contact with thru the years and where in the heck it even came from. it could of been from the hospitals i was in many times during my younger years, it could be from the couple of times i injected drugs, it could be from my alcoholism where i did things and shared things with God knows who? i have to quit trying to figure out where and why and work on the now and BE SAFE for the next generation. just my view.....

[pjhep80]

sharing a crack pipe is way different than sharing a joint...i dont know too many pot smokers with burnt lips, how about you???

[HARRYBEADS]

  Well back when, I used pop cans, broken bottles, hot knives,  broken glass hookas, old pipes with out screens and all the other imaginative ways a teenager could think of to deliver the smoke faster and stronger. Burnt lips, tongues, throats and hands were mainstream, everyone had burnt lips from hot knives. We used our goober to stop joints from burning uneven. Hash was some times smoked thru long glass tubes to help cool it.
Beer bottles were all opened by our teeth and if ya slipped a gashed gum hurt like hell.

How many don't would be easier to answer. Crack is really not new as allot of folk think , we made it... and would smoke the pot after the crack, or before and during.

I still have a big scar from a hot knife I got on my 18th birthday, but that is another story.
As I think back it was a real funny nite.

Harry