Friday, May 19, 2006
Can HCV Live Outside the Body & Transmit Infection
Recent studies suggest that HCV may survive on environmental surfaces at room temperature at least 16 hours, but no longer than 4 days.
# posted by Joyfulstill @ 5:47 PM 
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Thank you. Yes, it is interesting but scary. Suppose someone who has HCV bled on a park bench or a pool area and someone perhaps a child who had an open cut touced that area they could indeed get
infected. What pisses me off that although, Aids is also a deadly virus, however, it cannout live outside of the body.
Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well outside the body, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. HIV is found in varying concentrations or amounts in blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, saliva, and tears. To obtain data on the survival of HIV, laboratory studies have required the use of artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown virus. Although these unnatural concentrations of HIV can be kept alive for days or even weeks under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions, CDC studies have shown that drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the amount of infectious virus by 90 to 99 percent within several hours. Since the HIV concentrations used in laboratory studies are much higher than those actually found in blood or other specimens, drying of HIV-infected human blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental transmission to that which has been observed - essentially zero. Incorrect interpretations of conclusions drawn from laboratory studies have in some instances caused unnecessary alarm.
Results from laboratory studies should not be used to assess specific personal risk of infection because (1) the amount of virus studied is not found in human specimens or elsewhere in nature, and (2) no one has been identified as infected with HIV due to contact with an environmental surface.
Additionally, HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host (unlike many bacteria or fungi, which may do so under suitable conditions), except under laboratory conditions; therefore, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., called hepatitis C "a disease these millions will carry for a decade or more--possibly spreading to others--while it develops into a serious threat to their health." Hepatitis C is one of five currently identified viruses--hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E--all of which can attack and damage the liver. Widely viewed as one of the most serious of the five, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread primarily through contact with infected blood and can cause cirrhosis (irreversible and potentially fatal liver scarring), liver cancer, or liver failure.
Hepatitis C is the major reason for liver transplants in the United States, accounting for 1,000 of the procedures annually.
The disease is responsible for between 8,000 and 10,000 deaths yearly.Some estimates say the number of HCV-infected people may be four times the number of those infected with the AIDS virus. "One of the main differences is that hepatitis C doesn't kill as quickly as AIDS," says Jay Hoofnagle, M.D., director of digestive diseases and nutrition at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
My personal observation is at first HIV was thought to be a disease that only gay people could get, there was a lack of interest and funding..
Years later, when children and middle america became infected, especially hollywood it then took center stage. The funding and fund rasiers came to be fashionable
I believe the real lack of concern and serious under-funding for HCV is mainly because it is thought to be a drug users disease.
There needs to be a real Truthful awareness that HCV does not discriminate it crosses all social and economic barriers.
The public service Ads are totally offensive, they tell people if they are drugs uses, had risky sex, or had a blood transfusion, please get tested. They are doing more harm then good. The general population believes this myth. These are just some of the various modes of infection.
Receiving organs from donors whose blood contained HCV
Getting pricked with a needle that has infected blood on it--mainly a risk for health-care workers
Frequently being exposed to blood products such as those used to treat hemophilia or chronic kidney failure
Getting a tattoo or body piercing with non sterile instruments that were used on someone infected with HCV
Using an infected person's toothbrush, razor, or anything else that may have blood on it
Manicures, pedicures, reused medical devices, dental work and just about any medical procedures that would involve tubing or needles. Notably endoscopies and colonoscopies.
The Hepatitis C Virus is viewed like the Aids Virus was until people got the right information. Hopefully, they will soon and we can get our fair share of funding.
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infected. What pisses me off that although, Aids is also a deadly virus, however, it cannout live outside of the body.
Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well outside the body, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. HIV is found in varying concentrations or amounts in blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, saliva, and tears. To obtain data on the survival of HIV, laboratory studies have required the use of artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown virus. Although these unnatural concentrations of HIV can be kept alive for days or even weeks under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions, CDC studies have shown that drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the amount of infectious virus by 90 to 99 percent within several hours. Since the HIV concentrations used in laboratory studies are much higher than those actually found in blood or other specimens, drying of HIV-infected human blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental transmission to that which has been observed - essentially zero. Incorrect interpretations of conclusions drawn from laboratory studies have in some instances caused unnecessary alarm.
Results from laboratory studies should not be used to assess specific personal risk of infection because (1) the amount of virus studied is not found in human specimens or elsewhere in nature, and (2) no one has been identified as infected with HIV due to contact with an environmental surface.
Additionally, HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host (unlike many bacteria or fungi, which may do so under suitable conditions), except under laboratory conditions; therefore, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., called hepatitis C "a disease these millions will carry for a decade or more--possibly spreading to others--while it develops into a serious threat to their health." Hepatitis C is one of five currently identified viruses--hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E--all of which can attack and damage the liver. Widely viewed as one of the most serious of the five, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread primarily through contact with infected blood and can cause cirrhosis (irreversible and potentially fatal liver scarring), liver cancer, or liver failure.
Hepatitis C is the major reason for liver transplants in the United States, accounting for 1,000 of the procedures annually.
The disease is responsible for between 8,000 and 10,000 deaths yearly.Some estimates say the number of HCV-infected people may be four times the number of those infected with the AIDS virus. "One of the main differences is that hepatitis C doesn't kill as quickly as AIDS," says Jay Hoofnagle, M.D., director of digestive diseases and nutrition at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
My personal observation is at first HIV was thought to be a disease that only gay people could get, there was a lack of interest and funding..
Years later, when children and middle america became infected, especially hollywood it then took center stage. The funding and fund rasiers came to be fashionable
I believe the real lack of concern and serious under-funding for HCV is mainly because it is thought to be a drug users disease.
There needs to be a real Truthful awareness that HCV does not discriminate it crosses all social and economic barriers.
The public service Ads are totally offensive, they tell people if they are drugs uses, had risky sex, or had a blood transfusion, please get tested. They are doing more harm then good. The general population believes this myth. These are just some of the various modes of infection.
Receiving organs from donors whose blood contained HCV
Getting pricked with a needle that has infected blood on it--mainly a risk for health-care workers
Frequently being exposed to blood products such as those used to treat hemophilia or chronic kidney failure
Getting a tattoo or body piercing with non sterile instruments that were used on someone infected with HCV
Using an infected person's toothbrush, razor, or anything else that may have blood on it
Manicures, pedicures, reused medical devices, dental work and just about any medical procedures that would involve tubing or needles. Notably endoscopies and colonoscopies.
The Hepatitis C Virus is viewed like the Aids Virus was until people got the right information. Hopefully, they will soon and we can get our fair share of funding.
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