Opps meant as few as eight weeks treatment
You don’t need to see a doctor to get tested. You likely can ask at a lab near you. You can also go to any walk in clinic and see any doctor on staff.
You said your canker sore was just red not open and bleeding which would lessen the probability of any virus being able to enter your blood stream.
As far as those folks who don’t know how they got hep c unwilling to bet at least a few may not be totally honest about a one time drug use issue out of embarrassment. Also the old practices at some dentist offices could be a possible source, a forgotten blood transfusion, unknown mother to child transmission.
I can understand the CDC and others doing further research but I suspect that Neal here is at an extremely low risk and freaking out over nothing.
Neal worry accomplishes nothing knowledge is power. If your worried get tested for hep c antibodies 12 weeks after this occurred and then you will know. Hep c is not easily contracted and today being very successfully and relatively easily treated.
The only way to know if you are infected, although I very much doubt you are, is to get tested. Worrying and asking questions that can’t be answered by even the experts in the field accomplishes little. While your risk is very very low no one can know what actually happened in your case.
Bottom line if you have concerns, get tested.
There were numerous reasons I cited this research.
One, it is relatively new research and it is clearly stated that it is partly driven by the seemingly high number of HCV cases being seen with “ No risk factors”(ie.drug injection or high risk sex)
The “new”research states the number of these infections is estimated now at approx.33 % of all infections.
That would mean if the figure of 2.4 mill. are infected then approx.700 thousand just in the U.S. alone have no idea how they contracted HCV.
This obviously seems to be a growing concern among physicians treating HCV and yes as well the CDC.
The current research shows that there “is”“virus in saliva that “may”cause infection, not that there “may”be virus in infection.
Neal
As we both have mentioned, it would seem that your scenario would seem highly unlikely of contracting HCV , however the scientists are now aware of possible infectability of saliva and you asked why you were seeing conflicting information
Just to add, there have been many long term monogamous couples in these forums where one has hep c and the other does not even after decades of being in that relationship and having regular intimate relations with no protection.
Comparing simply mistakenly drinking on one occasion after someone who you say has hep c vs having regular sexual relations with a hep c infected person I assume you can gather why I suggest you are at an exceedingly low to the point of basically no risk
The symptoms you mention are not related to hep c. The majority of people have no symptoms beyond being maybe somewhat fatigued. When people develop symptoms it is after decades of infection when some will develop liver disease and the symptoms are of advanced liver disease.
https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/hcv/cfaq.htm#C5
Transmission / Exposure
How is hepatitis C spread?
Hepatitis C is usually spread when blood from a person infected with the hepatitis C virus enters the body of someone who is not infected. Today, most people become infected with the hepatitis C virus by sharing needles or other equipment to prepare or inject drugs. Before 1992, hepatitis C was also commonly spread through blood transfusions and organ transplants. After that, widespread screening of the blood supply in the United States virtually eliminated this source of infection.
People can become infected with the hepatitis C virus during such activities as:
Sharing needles, syringes, or other equipment to prepare or inject drugs
Needlestick injuries in health care settings
Being born to a mother who has hepatitis C
Less commonly, a person can also get hepatitis C virus through
Sharing personal care items that may have come in contact with another person’s blood, such as razors or toothbrushes
Having sexual contact with a person infected with the hepatitis C virus
Getting a tattoo or body piercing in an unregulated setting
Hepatitis C virus is not spread by sharing eating utensils, breastfeeding, hugging, kissing, holding hands, coughing, or sneezing. It is also not spread through food or water.
As far as HCV infectability of body fliuds(inclusive of saliva.tears,semen) there has been ongoing research(copied below) over the years that shows these fluids are shown to frequently contain virus.
The latest research is quite complicated reading however to quote in part:
"In summary, we present the first systematic investigation of HCV stability and infectivity in different body fluids. Even though transmission via saliva, tears, semen, or other non-parental body fluids are believed to be rare, we could clearly demonstrate that virus remains infective within these fluids and could potentially become transmitted. It is likely that the reduced viral loads in the diverse body fluids, as compared to viral levels in blood, are responsible for the observed low transmission rates, however, transmission might still be possible and its risk should not be fully neglected. In conclusion, strict compliance to established hygienic guidelines should be mandatory to avoid further HCV infections
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5881408/
There are folks that state they do indeed have HCV and have no idea how thay may have conracted it ,with no risk factors.
In this research above the approx. number of these infections is stated to be to be close to 33%.
That is a lot of people who get HCV that have no idea how, hence them doing research on means of infectability.
Having said all that ,it would seem that the means you have suggested to contract HCV would be extremely rare, however saliva given this data can not be entirely ruled out.
Getting tested for HCV is not a bad idea anyway IMHO.