About HCV

When I tell most people I have Hepatitis C they really don't understand what it is, what it does, or how you can get it.

Simply stated Hepatitis C is a virus that attaches itself to your blood cells and attacks the liver which may lead to cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer.  Most people don't even notice side effects when they are infected which makes it that much harder to know something could be wrong.

The most common ways to get Hep C is from intravenous or intranasal drug use, or blood transfusions prior to 1992 (me). While the risk is fairly low you can also get it from tattoo or piercing needles or having unprotected sex with someone who already has it. Otherwise I'd imagine health care workers or anybody who comes in contact with blood on a regular basis is at a much higher risk. Even the smallest of breaks in the skin leaves the opportunity for infection.

If you read this and think none of it applies to you and therefore you are probably safe, well, I hope you are, but that is not always the case. You get tested for HIV don't you? While HCV is only contracted via blood-to-blood contact, the virus can live for hours, possibly even days outside of the body. HIV only lasts for minutes in most circumstances. Doctors will not text you for HCV unless you are at obvious risk for it or are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant. There are four times as many people in the United States living with HCV than with HIV/AIDS and yet everyone I know gets tested for HIV. We really need to raise the bar and make it mandatory for doctors to screen for this more often!

If you have additional questions or think of other things I should mention here, please let me know. I really do want to become an advocate for HCV I think it's a shame that most people don't know about it, even worse, don't know they have it!