Hepatitis means swelling of the liver. It causes inflammation, swelling, and sometimes permanent damage to the liver.

Hep C is spread by blood to blood contact, and can be transmitted by sharing needles, cotton, cookers, and by unprotected sex. 80-90% of I.V. drug users are positive for Hepatitis C. The longer you've been shooting drugs the more likely you are to get Hep C.

Drinking a lot will cause Hep C to progress faster and you could get Cirrhosis and liver cancer much sooner. Most I.V. drug users with HIV have Hep C, but most I.V. drug users with Hep C don't usually have HIV. Hep C is a lot stronger that HIV, which means you are more likely to contract it and there isn't really much you can do about it once you have it. 70-80% of people with Hep C never clear the virus out of their system, and remain contagious. Hep C can be transmitted from mother to child before, during and after birth.

Symptoms: Unfortunately, many cases of Hep C go undiagnosed. Symptoms are mild or suggest only a flu-like illness. Sometimes people have no symptoms at all. These are some general signs and symptoms of active hepatitis, but you should always get tested regularly, especially if you know you are "high-risk".

- fatigue
- muscle or joint aches
- nausea/vomiting
- loss of appetite
- mild stomach pain
- diarrhea
- dark urine, light colored stools and jaundice, (skin and whites of the eyes look yellow)
- loss of taste for cigarettes

Treatment: The only FDA approved treatment is INTERFERON, and it only works on a small amount of patients and they won't give it to you if you are drinking or using drugs. They say it's because of the drug interactions and not being able to predict the side effects. The only way to get this treatment is through drug trials, (weird research experiments like they advertise on the back of the San Francisco Bay Guardian). Because of all this, prevention is especially important.

Prevention: The 30 second bleaching method used to kill the HIV virus doesn't work with Hep C or B. Bleach must be left in the rig for at least 2 minutes for the Hep C virus to become inactive. Two minutes is awhile to wait, so you may as well just exchange your rigs and use a new one each time so you know for sure that everything's cool. If you do bleach your rig rinse it out with water afterwards so the blood doesn't have a chance to clot.

Be Selfish, Don't Share Anything!

Don't share cookers!
If you're going to anyway, bleach it for 2 minutes, then rinse with clean water.
Don't share cottons!
Use a cigarette filter or a tampon if you have to.
Don't have unprotected sex!
This includes oral sex, use a condom or a dental dam.

If you think you might have Hep C go to a clinic and get tested. Make sure to ask for PCR-RNA-HEP C Blood test. This is the only way to tell if you have the actual virus.

The National Hepatitis Hot Line 1-800-Go-Liver
They can hook you up with the closest place to get tested or vaccinated.