How Much Blood is Needed to Transmit Hep C

When you are confronted with a difficult and profound question of, how much blood is needed to transmit Hep C, you’re actually being asked to explain how Hep C is actually transmitted and by which activities, which is the aim of this article. Always bear in mind though that when Hep C is involved, permanent contact with your doctor and a reputable online pharmacy are a must!

Major pertinent points about Hep C transmission

In order to provide a suitable and meaningful answer to our main question for this article, here are three main points to consider in connection with the transmission of Hep C:

• The overriding fact that the spread or transmission of the hepatitis C virus is enabled through the contact of the blood of a person infected with  hepatitis C with the blood of another person who is as yet unaffected by the virus.
• Taking Canada as the example of a world country where certain activities offer the greatest risk of transmitting Hep C, a visitor would surely note that that these transmission facilitators would include the sharing of equipment so as to use street drugs, body piercing items and/or tattooing.

These would be the street level basic transmitting methods but there are the more sophisticated means of transmitting Hep C such as during blood transfusions.

While this path of transmission has been effectively compromised due to meticulous care in screening of the blood supply in Canada, it does occur in other countries where there are less than satisfactory safety measures in place.

For instance, Hep C transmission can also take place mostly from the use of medical equipment that has been carelessly sterilized.

• Personal care items such as razors, nail clippers and tooth brushes can be vehicles of Hep C transmissions especially when blood remains can be left on them until another user makes similar use of the personal items.

The unique attributes of Hep C

From its own side, Hep C possesses certain traits which make it unique among other viruses such as:

• Its ability to engage in its own transmission, through the contact of a donor’s blood for instance, which is full of the Hep C virus, with the blood of an unwary victim in which the virus is totally absent.
• On its own, the hepatitis virus is both small but resilient.
• The amount of blood that will do the job of transmitting the hepatitis C virus can be a whole drop or microscopic in size which means it may not even be visible to the human eye. Even this size is enough for transmitting the Hep C virus.
• Open air outside the body is an appropriate environment for the Hep C virus to survive for at least 4 days.
• When placed inside a syringe with the right conditions at play, the virus is able to remain alive for many weeks making it ever ready to pass on its silent killer when the right opportunity presents itself.
• Any and every activity with the strongest possibility of facilitating contact on a blood-to-blood basis can be the most likely candidates for transmitting hepatitis C from one person to another.

Activities that have no possibility of facilitating a body-to-body contact can be discounted as ineffective in transmitting the virus.

Activities with exceptionally high hepatitis C transmitting potential

The activities listed below have the highest potential of transmitting the hepatitis C virus :

• Rituals that involve the cutting of flesh – When cutting rituals are observed which involve the cutting of flesh using shared tools, as well as an exchange of infected blood through such tools, hepatitis C has a good chance of being passed on.

• Improper or non-sterilization of medical equipment – when shared medical or surgical equipment are not properly sterilized especially in between patients, there’s a high risk of hepatitis C transmission to occur.

• Lackadaisical routine screening of blood transfusion or blood products – in some countries prior to the introduction of highly sensitive tests for the hepatitis C virus, the routine screening of blood transfusions and blood products was generally not practiced and the blood-to-blood transmission of hepatitis C was high.

• Body piercing or tattooing equipment – the needles, ink and other equipment used in tattooing can be contaminated with infected blood and when used again without being properly sterilized can become an excellent path for the transmission of hepatitis C.

• Equipment for smoking or snorting drugs – another path for the transmission of hepatitis C is the sharing of equipment for smoking or snorting drugs and there’s no lack of them. These potential transmission modes involve the presence of speck sized blood deposits that settle on cocaine straws and crack pipes from cracked lips or nosebleeds.

• Common use of equipment to prepare and inject drugs into flesh – these consist of all items that are prepared for skin piercing in order to inject street drugs into the body’s system. It also includes steroids that can have very small microscopic presence of blood on them and have a real potential of transmitting hepatitis C in a blood-to-blood contact. There’s a real danger that hepatitis C may be transmitted even for only a one time use of water and filters, cookers, wash, needles and syringes. If you’ve involved yourself in any of these, testing for hepatitis C is a very good move to make.

Activities that may transmit hepatitis C

Activities that may transmit hepatitis C include:

• Injuries from needle stick –a needle prick can become a potential vehicle for transmitting hepatitis C through blood-to-blood contact when the blood comes into contact with another person’s blood that’s infected with the virus.

• Parent to child transmission – the possibility of a mother transmitting the hepatitis C virus is very real but fortunately for children, the risk is low at 6% but prevention should nevertheless be pursued.

• Unprotected sex – Generally speaking, the risk of hepatitis C being passed on during sexual activity is very slim. Other factors must be present to increase the real risk of transmission. These factors include unprotected anal sex, HIV, STDs, blood presence during sex and also sex prolongation or chemsex.

• Sharing of personal hygienic items – it’s quite possible that the sharing of razors, toothbrushes, nail clippers and other personal hygienic items can result in the transmission of hepatitis C. There’s always a chance that blood may ooze from a face cut, gum bleed or even from a cut finger nail which may make contact with the blood of another user.

Conclusion    

It’s really fortunate that highly important information on the spread of the hepatitis C virus has been made available especially information on how much blood is needed to transmit the virus.        Knowing that even a microscopic amount of blood resting or clinging onto a personal hygienic item, tool or equipment is enough to activate the blood-to-blood transmission of hepatitis C is invaluable information and knowledge.