more to know about hep c 

Hep C is mostly passed on through blood-to-blood contact with someone who has it. While sharing injecting is perhaps the best known risk for Hep C, there is increasing evidence that this happens during sex as well. It’s a very common virus, especially in our community- more people live with Hep C in Australia than HIV.

Because the virus survives in dried blood for roughly 4 days, you don’t necessarily need physical contact with a person carrying it to pick it up.

High risk activities include:

• Needle stick injuries and sharing injecting equipment
• Unsterile injecting equipment
• Sharing unwashed sex toys
• Sharing razors, unsterile tattoo and piercing practices
• Barebacking
• Fisting & heavy arse play

Hep C is present in blood and cum, and there can be enough of it in the tiniest spot of blood to cause infection if it gets into a negative guy’s blood stream. It can survive in dried blood for up to four or five days (unlike HIV), making barriers the best prevention methods.

Here are some prevention strategies on minimising the chances of Hep C being passed on or acquired:

• Using your own injecting equipment, including fits, mixing spoons and tourniquets
• Using a new fit each time you inject
• Washing your hands before and after injecting
• Checking yourself and buddies in long sessions for friction burns and cuts on your cock and body
• Keeping cuts, sores, and abrasions covered
• Using condoms when you’re fucking
• Using a new condom on sex toys each time they’re shared
• Using gloves when fisting: fresh ones with each arse, changing them if you touch anything else like the lube pot or mat
• Washing hands and sex toys between partners
• Wiping down any slings, chains, or floggers before and after use

It can be a few weeks before you experience any symptoms of Hep C, and many people won’t get any at all. Common signs within the first six months of contracting Hep C are:

• Flu like symptoms
• Nausea
• Abdominal pain
• Jaundice (yellowing of the skin)

Some people clear the virus naturally after six months, but for others, and without treatment, the symptoms will progress into chronic infection. This can include cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver and cancer of the liver.

The good news is that very recently new drugs are highly effective, and more are on their way. Treatment will be tailored to each individual case and will involve a combination of anti-viral medications that aim to clear the virus from the body whilst halting the scarring of the liver and progression of cancer. The good news is, new Hep C treatments have a very high success rate of clearing the virus.

After the treatment is done for yourself you need to follow up with your doctor by doing blood test called HCV viral load and Liver Function Test every 6 months forever to make sure that the treatment was successful and it doesn't come back.