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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Hepatitis / July 2008I used the wrong tooth brush
My mother-in-law had hepatitis C. She underwent 5 months of treatment in 2005 and one test later showed that she was HCV-. We are visiting her, and this morning, I got up, not completely sober and I brushed my teeth with her toothbrush because we both had the same toothbrush and I did not realize until later. What are my risk factors? I am upset the whole day. On Jul 17, 5:23 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > My mother-in-law had hepatitis C. She underwent 5 months of treatment > in 2005 and one test later showed that she was HCV-. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > What are my risk factors? I am upset the whole day. If hep c is not currently detectable in her blood, there is essentially zero chance you got it from using her toothbrush. On the other hand, if, after her previous treatment, she promptly reinfected herself, and her toothbrush was covered with gobs of her fresh blood, and you had open, bleeding wounds in your mouth when you used it, it might be a good idea to get tested shortly, although hep c antibodies do take some time to show up. > On Jul 17, 5:23 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > used it, it might be a good idea to get tested shortly, although hep c > antibodies do take some time to show up. I don't know if she's gonna be positive again, co-incidentally, she had her blood test today. Is it the case that viruses die soon after they leave the human body? If that's the case, then I don't have much to worry. But I heard that quite often patients can get infected by receiving blood from blood bank. That means viruses don't die even while in the blood bag in the blood bank. On Jul 17, 7:12 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: I heard that > quite often patients can get infected by receiving blood from blood > bank. That means viruses don't die even while in the blood bag in the > blood bank.<< Hep C has been screened for in blood products since the early 90s... > On Jul 17, 7:12 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > I heard that [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Hep C has been screened for in blood products since the early 90s... In the USA only, right? On Jul 17, 8:08 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > > On Jul 17, 7:12 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > > I heard that [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > In the USA only, right? I believe in universally in the 1st world--the US, Canada, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, NZ, Japan, etc. On Jul 17, 8:08 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > On Jul 17, 10:53 pm, TX-012 <withba...@aol.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > In the USA only, right? I believe in universally in the 1st world--the US, Canada, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, NZ, Japan, etc. Nonetheless, there have been and continue to be blood-bank sourced infections of hepatitis c, and the lawsuits they deserve. Sometimes even medical professionals get sloppy and careless. Back to the toothbrush: if she was HCV+ when you used the brush, you may or may not have contracted the virus. If she was negative (as you say she was), you did not contract HCV from the toothbrush. Whether or not you were "completely sober" when you used the toothbrush is irrelevant. If it turns out that she is positive (highly unlikely if she's been negative for five years unless, as TX mentioned, she's become newly infected all over again), you have to wait six months for a reliable test. Prior to that, if you are infected, the virus levels may be too low to be detectable. Mother-in-law's toothbrush... ugh, gross. And we don't want to hear that you're shaving your legs with her razor, either, and it has nothing to do with hepatitis c <g> Yeah, yer prolly fine. > On Jul 17, 8:08 pm, markliu1...@yahoo.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > > Yeah, yer prolly fine. Yeah, it is really disgusting. I gag all day. Im prolly fine? Im glad to know. >My mother-in-law had hepatitis C. She underwent 5 months of treatment >in 2005 and one test later showed that she was HCV-. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >What are my risk factors? I am upset the whole day. My understanding is that the HCV virus can only live up to a couple of hours exposed to air (can anyone corroborate this?). So, if the toothbrush's bristles were dry and/or did not scratch or penetrate your gums or mouth tissue while brushing and you had no open wounds in your mouth, the odds are greatly against you having any chance of contracting HCV from her toothbrush -- however, I can't rule out Mad Cow. ;o) -- Steve >>My mother-in-law had hepatitis C. She underwent 5 months of treatment >>in 2005 and one test later showed that she was HCV-. [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Cow. ;o) > Steve It has still not been determined how long the virus can live outside the body, but it appears that it's much longer than a couple of hours, could possibly be days or even months. If viable copies of the virus were present on the bristles of the brush they would be mixed into the saliva, bristles scratching/penetrating tissue or not. Tissue damage inside the mouth is very common and rarely noticable. If the virus was on the toothbrush, there's probably a reasonable chance that the virus was transmitted. > <d...@cat.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > common and rarely noticable. If the virus was on the toothbrush, there's > probably a reasonable chance that the virus was transmitted. The bristles were still wet when I used it. Yucky yucky. I am scared. Hi Mark, Sounds like you have a 'for cause' justification, in which case your personal doctor could issue a blood test requisition, looking for elevated ALT and AST. Elevated liver enzymes is the response that your liver would induce if under seige by the virus or other specific illness. A more difinitive blood test is the PCR for the presence of the virus in your blood. Yes you sound spooked. I hope your medical plan covers this. The first type of test is not that expensive, the second one is more. take a load off your mind, find out for sure cactus jammies On Jul 18, 4:47 am, "Waterspider" <nos...@all.com> wrote: > <d...@cat.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > common and rarely noticable. If the virus was on the toothbrush, there's > probably a reasonable chance that the virus was transmitted. The bristles were still wet when I used it. Yucky yucky. I am scared. >On Jul 18, 4:47 am, "Waterspider" <nos...@all.com> wrote: >> <d...@cat.com> wrote in message [quoted text clipped - 45 lines] > >cactus jammies It will be some time before liver enzymes are elevated - if ever (the majority - 60-70% - of infected people don't experience any significant symptoms during the acute infection phase - so for those people, elevated LFTs might not happen for many years). It takes 1 to 3 weeks for the virus to reach detectable quantities; it takes 3 to 12 weeks for antibodies to appear. Under the circumstances, it might take some effort to get a PCP to order a viral load check (expensive), but it should be easy to get him/her to do an antibody check (cheap - and sure, the PCP could order an LFT panel at the same time, though that's less likely to be helpful). So, if he's that phreaked out, I'd say wait a month from the day that he ate that toothbrush, then see a PCP, explain what's up, and go from there. Still, if the saga is as related, it seems highly remote that there's a problem to be found... Cheers /greyhackles On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:47:29 -0700, "Waterspider" <nospam@all.com>, in message ID <I8ydnVO_2Ns-xR3VnZ2dnUVZ_hzinZ2d@posted.deltacablecommunications>, in the newsgroup alt.support.hepatitis-c wrote: >It has still not been determined how long the virus can live outside the >body, but it appears that it's much longer than a couple of hours, could [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >common and rarely noticable. If the virus was on the toothbrush, there's >probably a reasonable chance that the virus was transmitted. I also read that hep-c virus can still infect after several weeks outside the body. However, I've no idea where I read that or how reliable it was. > On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:47:29 -0700, "Waterspider" <nospam@all.com>, in > message ID [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > outside the body. However, I've no idea where I read that or how > reliable it was. A few years ago this subject was googled at length on ash-c or maybe smdh, and the jury is still out about how long the virus survives outside the body (if it's survived, it can and will reinfect). There is still so much we don't know about this beast. |
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