Sanjay Gupta, MD, Everyday Health: It’s basically a simplistic question, but what does blood-to-blood transmission mean? You have blood in a syringe, for example. How long has it been sitting there, and how long can it still transmit the virus?
Douglas Dieterich, MD, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: It’s probably 7 to 10 days.
Dr. Gupta: So if blood is sitting in a syringe for 7 to 10 days and then it is used again, it can still transmit?
Dr. Dieterich: Yeah, it’s scary.
Dr. Gupta: It’s remarkable.
Dr. Dieterich: Yeah, it is. It’s a smart virus.
Dr. Gupta: Cocaine straws — and admittedly I have never done that — but how would cocaine straws, that doesn’t sound like a blood-to-blood transmission.
Dr. Dieterich: Well, it’s a sharp straw you know. You get a little nick, a little blood. Even other things that you don’t even think about, like manicures, pedicures, boxing, rugby — a lot of people get cuts, they are in the scrum — so things like that are all risks that you don’t even think about.
Dr. Gupta: That’s going to scare a lot of people. When you talk about manicures, for example. Is there a way that can be done properly, or what’s happening?
Dr. Dieterich: You know, it’s hard to sterilize those instruments, so I think to be perfectly safe you should just bring your own manicure instruments. You have seen people get their cuticles nicked, right, when they have a manicure, and then they dip the scissors in the blue viral culture medium there and shake it off? Then it’s not sterile, you know, by any means.
Dr. Gupta: That doesn’t do the trick.
Dr. Dieterich: That doesn’t really do the trick, no.
Dr. Gupta: Today, the blood supply is safe, but anyone who was given blood from a blood bank before 1992 is also at risk of hepatitis C. Bottom line: sharing needles is not the only way to transmit this virus, so even if you never used illegal drugs, it may still be a good idea to get tested. With Everyday Health, I’m Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Be well.
By: Dr. Sanjay Gupta