Poll: The U.S. government is suggesting baby boomers get tested for hepatitis C. Have you been tested for hepatitis C? / LJWorld.com

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Response		Percent	Votes
No		66%	232
Yes		22%	80
I’m not sure		10%	38
Total	350

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I wonder how this test works? I once took a vaccination for Hep C, so I wonder if I would show as positive because of that shot. (I think it might have been more than one, but I don't remember the difference between the vaccinations for Hep C and the Hep B. One of them has a booster shot about a month after the first shot. I think that is Hep B. Whatever it is, I had both the B and C vaccinations.

none2 1 year, 1 month ago

Ooops, I made a mistake. I got vaccinations for B and A - not B and C. C (which used to be known as non-A non-B) has NO vaccination. My bad!

Jane 1 year, 1 month ago

Which form of HepC? It is my understanding that HepC can be one of three types.

none2 1 year, 1 month ago

I was reading up online, it sounds like there are 6 (each with subtypes):

What is a Hepatitis C Genotype?

There are 6 Genotypes of hepatitis C found in different populations around the world. Genotypes result from viral mutations of the hepatitis C virus.

Genotypes include:

Genotype 1: Subtype 1a is found most often in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe. Subtype 1b is found mostly in Japan and Europe.

Genotype 2: Subtypes 2a, 2b, 2c, and 2d are found mostly in Japan and China.

Genotype 3: Subtypes 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 3e, 3f, are found mostly in Scotland and some parts of the United Kingdom.

Genotype 4: Subtypes 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f, 4g, 4h, 4i, 4j, are found mostly in the Middle East and Africa.

Genotype 5: Subtype 5a is found mostly in Canada and South Africa.

Genotype 6: Subtype 6a is found mostly in Hong Kong and Macau.

This info was from: http://www.cpmc.org/learning/documents/hepatitisc-ws.html

crazyks 1 year, 1 month ago

From an article in the Washington Post yesterday:

"The hepatitis C virus is transmitted by blood, usually through intravenous drug use or transfusions, before a blood test for it became widely available in 1992. Extremely small amounts of the virus are able to cause infection. Some experts believe that rolled-up dollar bills used to snort cocaine and passed person-to-person can carry enough infected blood to transmit the virus.

“Many baby boomers may not even remember the behaviors that put them at risk,” said John W. Ward, head of the CDC’s division of viral hepatitis."

So it appears that the main culprits in spreading Hep C is intravenous drug use and blood transfusions...so why are they only targeting baby boomers for testing? Did those things stop happening for other generations?

Wouldn't you like to think that they were testing the blood supply for Hep C so it isn't passed on through blood transfusions?

And let me guess...John W. Ward is a thirtysomething little snot who tries not to remember that older people even exist...what an insulting comment! We might not remember our risky behavior...lol, lol, lol...

We remember them just as well as you remember yours, John...

misplacedcheesehead 1 year, 1 month ago

Although Hep C is primarily transmitted in blood, it can also be transmitted sexually. Be wise.

catfishturkeyhunter 1 year, 1 month ago

Hep C is no joke. Its just as deadly as HIV. Alot of people don't realize that or the fact that the Hep C is wide spread through alot of people who partied it up durring the 60's, 70's and 80's.. I myself am the by product of 70's sex, drugs and rock & roll. Both my parrents have it and have had it for years and it has slowly beat them down. Both are in their 50's and neither will make it past 60..

catfishturkeyhunter 1 year, 1 month ago

Joke if you will, but its true. Yes there are other ways to get it. Shared needles, and blood transfussions are probably the most common. But it can be sexually transmitted as well. It wouldn't hurt to get checked. I know alot of older people in their 50s who spent the better part of the 60's and 70's wasted and having the time of their lives who have it. Hep C is serious business. My father is living on borrowed time with just 1/3 of his liver left. They took the other 2/3rds a few years ago when they had to remove a golf ball size tumor from it. He is 55 years old and completely beat down with a body of a 90 year old. Course its his own fault.

crazyks 1 year, 1 month ago

My point was that I don't think people who were young in the 60s were any more apt to have these types of behavior than kids from any other generation...why don't they just recommend that everyone be tested?

Starlight 1 year, 1 month ago

Current treatment is limited to a combination of pegylated(antifreeze) interferon and ribavirin. Nasty poisons with serious side effects. I hope my body shows Sustained Viral Response when I'm six months past end of treatment. Told the doctor I wouldn't go through that crap again. I drank a lot of beer in the forty years I've had it and have stage 2, not fatty or cirrohtic liver. I was 'fortunate' to get one of the more benign subtypes. Other subtypes are a death sentence. Type 2c was prevalent in southern europe when mine discovered and I liked to think I had the "Riviera" type.

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