Ways That Hcv Can Be Transmitted
- Injecting, smoking or snorting drugs with shared, unsterilised equipment.
- Tattooing or piercing when needles, ink, inkwells and other equipment are shared.
- Medical or dental procedures with unsterilised equipment, including kidney dialysis.
- Needlestick accidents to health workers.
- Sharing items that may contain blood, such as razors, toothbrushes, nail scissors and nail files.
- To a baby during pregnancy, labour or at birth.
- From a blood transfusion or blood products before blood screening. This risk is now virtually zero in the UK, Western Europe and the US. However, up to 90% of people with haemophilia who were treated with clotting factors before 1985 were infected with both HIV and HCV.
In some countries, infections still occur from reused, unsterilised equipment or blood transfusions if blood is not screened thoroughly.
How Is Hepatitis A Spread
Hepatitis A
The hepatitis A virus is usually spread by putting something in your mouth that is contaminated with the virus. The virus is found in the stool of people with hepatitis A and is spread when someone’s stool accidentally contaminates food or water. This can happen when an infected person does not adequately wash their hands after using the bathroom then touches other things such as food. When other people eat that food, they can get infected with hepatitis A. Usually the transmission is between people in very close personal contact.
Foods themselves can be contaminated with hepatitis A virus, such as raw oysters harvested from sewage-contaminated water. When people eat food contaminated with hepatitis A virus, they can get infected with the virus.
Hepatitis A is usually spread through:
- household contact with an infected person
- sexual contact with an infected person
- eating or drinking contaminated food or water
- sharing eating utensils that are contaminated
- touching contaminated surfaces and then placing your hands near or in the mouth
How Does It Occur
Hepatitis A is caused by the hepatitis A virus. Someone who is infected may pass hepatitis A to others by not washing his or her hands, especially after using the bathroom. The infection can also be spread by anal-oral sex. You might also get the virus from:
- contact with the bowel movements of an infected person
- food handled by an infected person
- water that has sewage in it or shellfish taken from the contaminated water.
You have a higher risk for infection if
- You travel to places where hepatitis A is common.
- You use illegal drugs.
- You are a man who has sex with men.
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What Can Be Done To Help Prevent Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A can be spread only by people with active infections. It is usually contagious for 2 to 3 weeks before symptoms appear and for 2 to 3 weeks afterward. During this time, others can pick up the virus by touching anything contaminated with bowel movements of the infected person.
You can get shots that prevent hepatitis A. Two shots are given 6 to 18 months apart. Healthcare providers usually recommend that you get the shots if:
- You travel to or work in a country that has high rates of hepatitis A.
- You live in an area that has outbreaks of hepatitis A.
- You are a man who has sex with other men.
- You inject illegal drugs.
- You have chronic liver disease.
- You receive clotting factor concentrates because you have a clotting disorder, such as hemophilia.
If you are planning travel to an area where hepatitis A is common, you should have the first shot at least 1 month before you start your travels. Check with your healthcare provider about when you should have a second shot. Two shots of this vaccine can protect against hepatitis A for many years.
Hepatitis A vaccine is available as a combination vaccine with hepatitis B. Ask your healthcare provider if this is recommended for you.
If you have an active hepatitis A infection, be especially careful to always wash your hands thoroughly after using the restroom. This will help prevent spread of the disease to others.
If someone in your household has hepatitis, take the following precautions:
For more information, call or write:
Sharing Personal Care Items
The chances of spreading hepatitis C within your household are low but possible. To be safe, don’t share personal care items that could be contaminated with blood, Lee says. These include razors, toothbrushes, cuticle scissors, and nail clippers.
In addition, be mindful when you go to nail salons or barbershops, where the same tools are used on all customers. A study published in the November-December 2014 issue of the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice found that while regulations to safeguard the public exist in most states, it’s unknown how many businesses comply with them. Ask about tool-sterilization procedures before you frequent these establishments. You can also bring your own nail care supplies.
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Sharing A Fork Spoon And Glass
You’re at a restaurant and someone at your table offers a taste of their delicious cheesecake. Should you politely pass? Well, not if you’re worried about catching hepatitis C. Go ahead and taste that dessert because sharing eating utensils doesn’t spread the virus. Also, have a sip of their water, too. Remember, spreading hepatitis C requires direct contact with infected blood, not saliva.
Coronavirus Disease : Tobacco
At the time of preparing this Q& A, there are no peer-reviewed studies that have evaluated the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with smoking. However, tobacco smokers may be more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, as the act of smoking involves contact of fingers with the lips, which increases the possibility of transmission of viruses from hand to mouth. Smoking waterpipes, also known as shisha or hookah, often involves the sharing of mouth pieces and hoses, which could facilitate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus in communal and social settings.
Smoking any kind of tobacco reduces lung capacity and increases the risk of many respiratory infections and can increase the severity of respiratory diseases. COVID-19 is an infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs. Smoking impairs lung function making it harder for the body to fight off coronaviruses and other respiratory diseases. Available research suggests that smokers are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 outcomes and death.
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Injecting Drug Use And Hcv
Worldwide, most HCV infections are related to injection drug use. This includes medical and non-medical settings, through sharing needles and other equipment.
HCV is a tougher and smaller virus than HIV. It can remain infectious for days to weeks in syringes, cookers, cotton, water, measuring syringes and ties.
Cleaning syringes with bleach reduces the risk of HIV transmission, but it is less effective against HCV.
Using clean needles and your own works each time you inject stops both HIV and HCV transmission .
It also reduces the risk of other infections.
If you caught HIV from drug use, you were probably infected with HCV first, before HIV. This is because HCV is a smaller virus that is not easily killed by bleach, making it more infectious than HIV.
Sharing injecting recreational drugs including mephedrone and crystal meth in UK gay clubs and/or sex parties has a high risk of HCV transmission, see this link.
Hepatitis A: How Does It Spread
It usually spreads through food or water. Food can be tainted when it’s touched by a person with hepatitis who did not wash their hands after using the bathroom. This transfers tiny amounts of infected stool to the food. Raw shellfish, fruits, vegetables, and undercooked foods are common culprits in hepatitis A outbreaks. The virus can also spread in daycare centers if employees aren’t careful about washing hands after changing diapers.
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Ways You Wont Spread Hepatitis C
There are some ways in which you wont spread HCV, though. Go ahead and let your significant other have a bite of your sandwich or dessert. According to the CDC, hepatitis C isnt spread by sharing silverware or drinking glasses, or through water or foods. Showing affection by holding hands, hugging, or kissing is also safe, Lee says. And although germs from sneezing or coughing might cause you to get a cold, they wont give you hepatitis C.
How Is It Diagnosed
Your healthcare provider will ask about your medical history and symptoms. Your provider will look at your skin and eyes for signs of hepatitis. Your provider will check your belly to see if the liver is bigger than it should be or hurts when it is touched.
You will have blood tests. If blood tests show that your liver is not working normally, your provider will do tests to find out if a virus is causing the problems. Tests that find a virus will also determine the type of virus.
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Hepatitis C: What Happens
About 25% of people who get hepatitis C defeat the virus after a short-term infection. The rest will carry the virus in their body for the long term. Chronic hepatitis C can cause very serious complications, including liver failure and liver cancer. There are effective treatments for the virus, though.
Symptoms And Treatment Of Epstein
When people hear the word “hepatitis,” they generally take that to mean viral hepatitis such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C. And while these are certainly the most common forms of hepatitis , there are other infectious causesamong them, infectious mononucleosis caused by the Epstein-Barr virus .
Unlike some forms of hepatitis, hepatitis caused by mononucleosis is almost always self-limiting with generally milder symptoms. Treatment is mainly supportive.
Hepatitis in people with mononucleosis is often referred to as Epstein-Barr virus hepatitis, or simply EBV hepatitis.
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Hepatitis C: Who Is At Risk
People who have injected illegal drugs at any time, even one time, many years ago, could be walking around with chronic hepatitis C. Because there are often no symptoms, many former drug users may not realize they have the infection. People who received a blood transfusion before 1992 also have a higher risk. Before that year, donated blood was not screened for the hepatitis C virus.
Can You Get Hep C From Sharing Blood
Hepatitis C virus can also be transmitted by sexual contact, but this does not happen as easily as the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The hepatitis C virus is not spread by casual contact like hugging, sneezing, coughing, or sharing food and drinks. You cannot get hepatitis C by donating blood.
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Hepatitis B: What Happens
Many adults who get hepatitis B have mild symptoms for a short time and then get better on their own. But some people are not able to clear the virus from the body, which causes a long-term infection. Nearly 90% of infants who get the virus will carry it for life. Over time, hepatitis B can lead to serious problems, such as liver damage, liver failure, and liver cancer.
How Is Hepatitis Diagnosed
Chronic hepatitis can quietly attack the liver for years without causing any symptoms. Unless the infection is diagnosed, monitored, and treated, many of these people will eventually have serious liver damage. Fortunately, blood tests can determine whether you have viral hepatitis, and if so, which kind.
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Schedule Your Hepatitis C Test Online*
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*Testing appointments are available on Mondays between the hours of 8 am and 12 pm only.
If you learn that you are infected with hepatitis C, it is important that you receive proper medical care. A health care provider can monitor your liver disease. They can also give you advice on how to take care of your liver and information on hepatitis C treatments. Hepatitis C is curable in many cases. Medications currently available for the treatment of hepatitis C are more successful, have fewer side eects and the length of treatment is shorter .
Hepatitis B: How Does It Spread
You can get it through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person. In the U.S., it’s most often spread through unprotected sex. It’s also possible to get hepatitis B by sharing an infected person’s needles, razors, or toothbrush. And an infected mother can pass the virus to their baby during childbirth. Hepatitis B is not spread by hugging, sharing food, or coughing.
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How Does Someone Get Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C spreads when blood from a person with the virus enters the body of an uninfected person. This can happen from:
- Sharing needles, syringes or other drug injection supplies.
- Needle stick injuries in health care settings.
Less often, a person can get hepatitis C through:
- Being born to a mom who has hepatitis C.
- Sharing items like razors or toothbrushes that may have contacted blood.
- Sex with a person who has hepatitis C.
What Are The Symptoms
Symptoms usually appear 2 to 6 weeks after you are infected with the virus. Sometimes hepatitis A is so mild that there are no symptoms.
If you have symptoms, the illness usually begins with these flulike symptoms:
- loss of appetite
Smokers may lose their taste for cigarettes.
After several days you may also have these symptoms:
- nausea and vomiting
- dark urine
- yellowish skin and eyes
- pain just below the ribs on your right side, especially if you press on that part of your belly
- bowel movements that are whitish or light yellow and may be looser than normal.
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How To Prevent Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by a virus . It can be serious and theres no cure, but the good news is its easy to prevent. You can protect yourself by getting the hepatitis B vaccine and having safer sex. If you have oral, anal, and vaginal sex, use condoms and dental dams to help stop the spread of hepatitis B and other STDs.
Infectious Diseases From Mouth Sores
Certain infections causing ulcerations in the mouth can also be spread through kissing. These include cold sores and hand, foot, and mouth disease.
Cold sores are caused by the herpes virus, usually herpes simplex virus-1 . While related, this is different from herpes simplex virus-2 , which is more generally associated with genital herpes.
In contrast to infections spread through the saliva, HSV-1 is spread through open cold sores on the lips or near the mouth. Although the infection is contagious through all stages of a cold sore, the infection is most contagious when the sore is open and leaking fluid.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease, caused by the Coxsackievirus, is another infectious disease that is spread through open sores in the mouth. This is a type of enterovirus, which is a common infection that has multiple strains that we all often are exposed to. This particular infection is common in kids, especially those in daycare or preschool settings.
It spreads by breathing the air after the sick person coughs or sneezes, touching or close contact such as kissing or sharing utensils and cups, through touching a sick person’s feces such as when changing a diaper, or from touching the eyes, nose, or mouth after contact with surfaces that have been contaminated such as doorknobs or toys.
In contrast to cold sores and coxsackievirus blisters, canker sores have no infectious disease origin and cannot be spread through saliva or kissing.
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Encouraging Others To Get Tested For Hepatitis C
While the odds of passing on the hepatitis C virus are low, you should still tell anyone at risk that you have hepatitis C. You should tell sexual partners, spouses, and family members. Your infection may be difficult to discuss, but anyone at potential risk must know. That way, they can get tested and treated if needed. Read more on why you should get tested for hepatitis C.
Show Sources
Paul Berk, MD, professor of medicine and emeritus chief of the division of liver disease, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City chairman of the board, American Liver Foundation.
Alan Franciscus, executive director, Hepatitis C Support Project and editor-in-chief of HCV Advocate, San Francisco.
Thelma King Thiel, chair and CEO, Hepatitis Foundation International.
David Thomas, MD, professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore.
Howard J. Worman, MD, associate professor of medicine and anatomy and cell biology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City.
The American Gastroenterological Association.
What Won’t Transmit Hepatitis And How To Prevent It
There are 170 million cases of hepatitis C worldwide, and nearly 4 million in the United States. Prevention is important, but hepatitis C can’t be spread by sharing utensils and cups, or by casual contact.
This means that if you are diagnosed with hepatitis C and don’t know how you got ityou can’t blame your infection on sharing a fork with someone. Read on about other ways that you can’t catch or transmit hepatitis C.
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