help please :( hep c

[krissy2257]

My parnter and I just moved into his sister s house who is hep c postive we cleaned the house and my partner has been stabbed with one of her needles while cleaning there was none of her blood on it or in it and it only cut through the first few layers of his skin it wasn't bleeding until he began squeezing it then put bleach on it and ran hot water on it. How likely is it he will of got it. I asked her how old the needle was and she said definatly two weeks but could b a month.
We have moved in to help her get off drigs and stop people using her home as a drop in as she is mental health. Dodnt plan to start off with a risk of hep c to my  partner
Im also pregnant so stressing about it.

Will he have hep c now

[sparky43]

Hi Krissy,

SurfsideGal is correct in her responses.   It sounds like you did the best you could with letting the injury "bleed out" (if blood is flowing outwards, viruses can't go inwards).   Washing the injury also was a good idea.   If the needle hadn't been used in two weeks, then there may have still been infectious Hepatitis C on it, but much less than if it had just been used the day before (the virus dies bit by bit as time passes).  And as you mentioned, it was a "shallow" injury.  When medical personnel get needle sticks from patients who are Hep C positive, only around 2% of them become infected, and that is blood that is fresh out of the patients' body and deep into the doctor or nurses' hand.   I would guess that your partners' chances of becoming infected are lower than that.

If you wish to ease your anxiety, I would recommend that your partner get tested via a dna-pcr test (which looks for evidence of the virus itself).   These will show results after 2-3 weeks instead of the 3 months you need to wait before taking the test for hep c antibodies.

I know this is a frightening thing, but the odds are on your side.  And if worse comes to worse, there are now three different drugs on the market that have been proven to cure a hepatitis c infection and more are on the way.  They are expensive at the moment, but with competition, the price will be driven down.  Hepatitis C is a slow moving virus and can take decades to start showing symptoms.

[SurfsideGal]

Krissy, it does not have to be injected in a vein. There is blood even when the injection goes into a muscle. He should be tested. He likely will be just fine, but he needs to know for sure.

[krissy2257]

Thank u

[krissy2257]

Thank u for that I  have spoken to her so she said she doesn't injected it the vien but her muscle also when the needle got my partner it went in one bit of skin and out the other side (kinda like when u get a spinter and as I Said was only the first two layers of skin when removed there was no blood until he began to sqeeze his finger he than applied bleach. Thank u Ifor your answer very scary

[SurfsideGal]

Unfortunately hep C can be transmitted this way. You do not have to see the blood as even a microscopic amount of blood can transmit the virus. With needles used for injection, the blood can sit in the hollow of the needle and be infective for a long time. However, the risk of infection is not very high. Healthcare providers who have had needle-sticks only "catch" the virus approximately 2% of the time.Your partner should be tested about 12 weeks from his exposure and if negative, should repeat the test at 6 months post exposure.