Hepatitis Forums
Hepatitis C Prevention, Transmission and Testing => Am I Infected? => Topic started by: scaredtodeath on July 16, 2017, 03:54:30 pm
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I have read that theres a risk of contraction through snorting gear but not through blood being swallowed? This doesnt make sense as the mouth and nose are both mucosal membranes. Mouths would seem to be a much easier way of transmission due to gums bleeding very easily due to gingivitis or rough brushing etc etc. If the membranes in the mouth and the nose were both intact why would the nose be susceptible but not the mouth? (Obviously the digestive tract is not susceptible I mean the actual mouth before swallowing.) Any thoughts on this?
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Snorting drugs damages the lining of the nose. So you could have snorting equipment potentially contaminated with hep c infected blood and inserting into the nose with a damaged lining.
As far as the mouth if you hypothetically got hep c infected blood in the mouth you would have to swish the blood around the bleeding gums somehow.
Basically through snorting the contaminated blood would have a better chance of entering the blood stream. Also there have been no examples of infection by ingesting contaminated blood surely that is not something that would often occur except possibly for those who engage in vampirism as a blood sport.
While contracting hep c through snorting drugs is a known risk it is not as great a risk as IV drug use which obviously is the greatest risk of hep c transmission.