personal hygiene products

[chuckles333]

I was told not to share combs, toothbrushes, nailclippers etc. to prevent infecting others with the virus. I am now undergoing treatment for type 2b genome. I am 1/2 way through my 6th week of a 24 week treatment course. When should I replace my own personal care items to prevent reinfecting myself or is this a concern?

[nygirl7]

It's very chicken or the eggie isn't it?

In other words don't sweat it cause you'd have to I guess be cleared the exact moment you reinfected yourself anyways. ;)

[Trinity4]

Never changed razors regularly, toothbrushes every six months as recommended by the dental association.  UND sometime between 14-16 wks, still UND.  Have never seen anything on any of the hepc websites that advises changing personal items regularly in order to prevent reinfecting yourself nor was it recommended by either of my hepatologists.  It's all about your comfort level not reinfection.

[apache1]

I agree with HCA

On one of the other HCV forums we had a heated debate about this.
The forum moderator ended up banning the guy that questioned his daily 'tooth brush change regime'...

The moderator was suggesting or implied he changed tooth brushes every day, or something like that, in order to not re-infect himself while he was on tx.

A very knowledgeable member of that forum questioned this
'tooth brush change regime'
This knowledgeable member used the same info HCA stated above.

That makes perfect sense to me. At best case scenario, the virus in dried blood only lives for hours or maybe days.

To be reinfected, you have to first, be cured. If your cured, where does the the live virus come from to re-infect you ?
Here is one of the pro change arguments I have heard.
While on your way to und
you got some virus infected blood on your nail clippers ( even though you had to be close to und with very low Vl ), then you became und fast enough that the virus did not die on the clippers, and re-infected yourself upon clipping......... Yup, and I bleive my old girlfreind when she said
" I got the clap from a toilet seat babe"

imo, re-infection from your own personal items, with massive levels of peg and riba in your blood,.is virtually impossible while on tx.

apache

[HCA]

There is no possibility of re-infecting yourself.The virus has to be encapsulated by a liver cell to make copies.Whilst you have detectable viral serum this is happening billions of times each day anyway.To re-infect you would have to clear the virus,introduce a contaminated smear into your bloodstream before the virus which cannot replicate has died and then it would have to survive the interlukin storm the interferon is causing in your system.
I have been asling for qiuite a few years if anyone knows of a verifiable case of infection by personal items but so far no takers.

[meakea]

I didn't get a clear answer to this question from my doc so I made the choice to change my toothbrush and my disposable razor every week until I reached UND status.  Now I change them every month.  I figured it was worth the extra couple of bucks to be sure.  I took my shot on Friday night and then I used a new toothbrush that night before going to bed and then switched the next Friday night, etc.  

[nygirl7]

I don't know if there really is but I saw someone once who actually used a new toothbrush EVERY day.  Seemed a bit absurd to me really since the chance of infection via this route is very very very small (kind of like saying that birth control is 99% effective almost...LOL).

I switched my toothbrush every month just to be sure but I'm sure you will find other opinions on that. Obviously you change razors more often than that anyway...but I have never heard of anyone infected this way (both my kids were perfectly fine and we used each others stuff all the time since they were born by accident)...so I think just use some common sense but don't get carried away since it's more for peace of mind than anything else.

Good luck on your treatment.