Hepatitis C Prevention, Transmission and Testing > Am I Infected?
Please help, need to get informed to function.
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Alphaomega999:
Hello. I’m in an ongoing treatment for for contamination ocd which makes me fear contracting blood borne diseases. This is a major struggle and takes up every waking hour for me.
I am now determined to turn my life around because I’m in my twenties and can’t live like this.
I’m humbly reaching out to get informed.
I’ve come to understand that I will have to get informed on transmission routes to get a reasonable mindset. I’ve learned that HIV virus can’t live outside the body, and I’m vaccinated against hepatitis B. Hepatitis C is my prime concern.
I fear things like touching public places where other people have touched, and if I accidentally come into contact with a dried blood spot (or what I fear might be blood) this destroys me mentally for days. I constantly disinfect and clean and wash my hands which makes me miserable.
I’ve learned from various sources that the virus can live on inanimate objects for 4 days, but then I’ve also read that it can live for weeks. This makes me quarantine clothes which I believe could have gotten blood on them from for example public transportation. This is also what makes me fear touching doorknobs, and everything else in public. I fear the minor possibility that invisible HepC can linger there. I also fear stains, because I’m colourblind I can’t determine if they are Red or not and therefore I have to assume it’s blood.
I need to learn if this is a way of transmission. Does the virus live in a transmittable state on surfaces? I have eczema on my hands which I’ve learnt is risk factor and I fear the virus getting into my bloodstream because I always have minor cuts and inflamed skin on my hands. Does the virus “stick” to things and can I transfer it around?
I am making large chains of events: I might have touched blood - I touched my jacket - the jacket touched other things in my wardrobe - I have to quarantine everything it has touched - my arms touched the jacket when undonning it - gotta wash arms - what is the water splashes from my arms and carries with it the hep.
Especially the water splash part is annoying and time consuming because even tho I feel it’s far fetched I can’t ignore the possible risk due to my ignorance.
I picked up a box I ordered from the post office a week ago and because I touched some kind of dark spot on the iPad there I can’t bring myself to open it because it could be carrying hep. Is this reality? Can’t really know.
Are any of these instances of concern? Can hep c carry over from things to other things, or does it not just work like that?
I would be very thankful for advice. As you might understand from my message, it’s taking all my energy to worry and fear like this.
Sincerely Alphaomega999
Lynn K:
Hep c infected blood must enter the blood stream. One rout in theory could be through an open wet fresh weeping injury. I’m assuming you are not walking around with open bleeding wounds. Also consider if a medical worker should experience a needle stick injury involving a patient with known hep c the odds of transmission are about 1.8% so relatively low. I believe it should be obvious that your list would be many times smaller that this scenarios small risk.
Life does not promise perfect safety. We all just accept a certain level of risk in life in order to live a life.
Best of luck to you I hope you are in counseling and possibly taking medication to help you with your symptoms