6 ms·
I am glad they’re screening for it. I was born to someone who had the virus, but didn’t know I had Hep C myself until I submitted myself to an exceptionally tho
by thex10 1mo ago
I am glad they’re screening for it. I was born to someone who had the virus, but didn’t know I had Hep C myself until I submitted myself to an exceptionally thorough STI testing panel. I say exceptional, because the standard ones I’d done throughout college and early adulthood do not happen to include that particular test. So I feel a bit lucky to have been able to get diagnosed and treated in my mid-20s, before the disease could do much damage.
- nly 1mo agoThat's odd. I just looked at what I thought was a pretty standard piss and blood STI test results of my own, and it covered: - Syphilis - Hep B - Hep C - HIV 1 and 2 and P24 - Chlamydia - Gonorrhoea
- thex10 1mo agoI forgot to mention my experience was in the northeastern USA in the 2000s-2010s. I’m happy you got a better standard of care than I did!
- nly 1mo agoAh OK, this was in London
- Aurornis 1mo agoHep C screening at least once for adults >= 18 is recommended and considered standard of care in the United States. I checked my medical records and I have a negative Hep C result in an old checkup when I was younger, and another one from a new provider who insisted on a big panel of standard testing for new patients (despite me having no risk factors). It’s unfortunate that your early providers dropped the ball. I wonder if they assumed you had already been tested for some reason?
- nly 1mo agoCrazy how different healthcare is in different countries. In the UK once you've had your childhood vaccinations it's entirely possible you'd simply never see a doctor again in your life until you're ready for your prostate exam in older life. There are no regular checkups or preventative care on the NHS for mid life adults unless you're proactive
- basisword 1mo agoTo be fair, almost nobody is going from childhood vaccinations > late-middle age without seeing a doctor. And when you do go with an ailment general blood tests seem pretty standard these days at GP's along with standard vitals checks. They also do preventive care where necessary. Every woman is invited for cervical screening once they turn 25 and then every few years until they're in their 60's. Regular mammograms are also a thing after a certain age/depending on risk factors. Bowel cancer screening too. STI testing is free and, depending on where you live, done by post. Also depending on your definition of 'childhood' there are a few vaccines given when you're a teenager (HPV for example). And if you ever travel you'll be visiting the doctor for vaccines then too.
- SoftTalker 1mo agoI don't think I've been to a doctor in close to 40 years, except for treatment of a few acute injuries. I've had a few vaccine boosters, but I get those at a pharmacy.
- frereubu 1mo agoI presume you're not a woman, because there's cervical screening for women aged 25-64 every five years. Also depends on what you mean by "mid life", but there's breast screening offered to women aged 50-70 and bowel cancer screening offered to people from 50 to 74 every two years. There are real trade-offs with screening, and screening too much has harms as well as too little, although I'm not qualified to make a judgement on where that line sits relative to where it is in the UK.
- Tangurena2 1mo ago
- jadyn513 1mo agoAnd even in the US the Hep C screening recommendation is new. Before 2020 it was only recommended (and therefore covered by most US insurance carriers) for people who injected drugs, had received a blood transfusion or product before 1992, or born between 1945-1965.
- sfilmeyer 1mo agoYou had me curious about what I was tested for, also in the northeastern USA in the 2010s. It looks like they included Hep C when my PCP ordered STD tests in 2015, along with most of the tests the other commenter mentioned. I'm glad they caught yours in time to treat it well!
- paulmist 1mo agoIn Europe I don't think it's commonly done. For example, the standard Dutch MSM STI test [1] covers HIV, Syphilis, Chlamydia, and Gonorrhoea only while Trichomoniasis, HPV 2 and Herpes are rather common. That being said, it's freely available at most hospitals. [1] https://www.mantotman.nl/ https://www.mantotman.nl/
- Teknoman117 1mo agoHerpes screening is discouraged in the US unless symptoms are present as the widely available IgG tests have terrible specificity. While the false negative rate is practically 0, they have a false positive rate of around 20%. The only high-accuracy confirmatory test (at least in the US) is the Western Blot but there's only a handful of labs in the country that offer it. The current tests would result in a substantial fraction of the population running around thinking they have a highly stigmatized STI that they in fact do not have with little to zero ways of getting a more accurate test.
- jijijijij 1mo ago> HPV 2 and Herpes are rather common Seems like both HSV-1 and HSV-2 seroprevalences are actually rather low in the Netherlands. As for STI testing: Serological testing is pretty meaningless regarding infection risk and direct viral detection is only done on visible lesions for differential diagnostics AFAIK. You can shed the virus without lesions, HSV-1 can be contracted without direct mucosa contact, and while HSV-1 is associated with oral herpes and HSV-2 with genital herpes, both types can cause lesions anywhere on the body. Sure someone without positive antibody status very likely can't transmit it, but that's a very small minority of people of relevant age. I believe talking to Americans about "herpes" can be misleading, as it's weirdly stigmatized over there and people seemingly conflate visible "cold sores", genital herpes and antibody status. Incidentally, genital herpes and HSV-2 in general is more common in the US, which may be a direct outcome of this cultural dynamic. Due to lower incidences of early oral HSV-1 infections, compared to most western Europe, Americans are more likely to get infected with genital herpes of either type, but in particular HSV-2, too. Prior oral HSV-1 infections are somewhat protective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_herpes_simplex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_herpes_simplex
- globular-toast 1mo agoHep C isn't commonly sexually transmitted so it's odd they would test for it. It's more of a concern in certain occupations, like healthcare, where you may come into contact with blood.
- anon84873628 1mo agoNote that doesn't include HSV (especially 2) which can be transmitted asymptomatically, and even with a condom. The medical establishment doesn't consider it a concern, but it's worth having both parties check.
- Teknoman117 1mo agoThe problem with screening for HSV is that the HSV IgG tests are pretty terrible (the blood antibody tests). They have a false positive rate around 20% and re-running the tests several times won't yield different results. This would result in more people thinking they have HSV but don't than people who actually have it.
- anon84873628 1mo agoSo the medical establishment doesn't consider it enough of a concern to solve those problems? I believe people should be informed of this so they can make the best choice for themselves.
- HDBaseT 1mo agoI've never had a piss or blood test.
- balderdash 1mo agoi think during that time / place it was risk based - if you didn't know your parent had it (or didn't tell your dr), and weren't an intravenous drug user, etc. its likely no one would have screened for it.
- srik 1mo agoGood for you! Could you share the name of that particular test here? I'm confident I'm clear but might want to include that test in case I need to in the future.
- KaiserPro 1mo agoA standard STi clinic should have you covered. They should do the full pipecleaner wee and blood check
- caycep 1mo agohep c antibody basically if positive they will probably do hep c viral load https://www.labcorp.com/tests/144050/hepatitis-c-virus-hcv-antibody-with-reflex-to-quantitative-real-time-pcr https://www.labcorp.com/tests/144050/hepatitis-c-virus-hcv-a...
- anitil 1mo agoIf you're comfortable sharing, did you have any symptoms? Or was it just latent/dormant?
- thex10 1mo agoJust latent, never suspected a thing.
- MarceliusK 1mo agoA disease that can stay silent for years, but is also highly curable once detected, seems like exactly the thing you want to screen for more aggressively
- legulere 1mo agoDepends on the false-positive rate of the test. With a high false-positive rate testing a lot of people leads to a lot of unnecessary treatment