Hepatitis C: How It's "Caught"

The public face and education programs on the disease are non existent. School children are not taught about the deadly dangers of the disease and how it is caught. Hepatitis C is "The Druggies Disease". The medical profession treats it as "The Druggies Disease" and society treats it as "The Druggies Disease" therefore stigma is attached and the disease is pushed to the corner and allowed to fester and grow insidiously in dark places.

The main and most common method of transmission of the virus is through drug use and sharing dirty equipment and used needles. This however is not the only method of transmission. In the early 80's between the emergence of the virus and the actual discovery of the existence of the virus by the medical community, hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have never touched illegal drugs in their lives were infected with the disease through various medical procedures. These procedures included blood transfusions and transfusions of blood product. Before 1987 there was no blood screening for hepatitis C and therefore many people were contaminated after accidents and operations that required blood. Operation theaters were another source of spreading the virus. Colonoscopy tubes and endoscopy tubes that were not cleaned properly between patients contaminated whole operating lists and dental surgeries helped to spread the virus along as well. Tattoo parlours were a source of infection and many people who were tattooed in the 80's and early 90's were infected this way.

Victims of the disease through Medical procedures face the same stigma regarding their condition as someone who caught the disease by sharing dirty needles.