Everyone had to go through it — the immunization shots before going into college. Virginia Tech — like most colleges — requires students to get certain immunization shots before they enter their freshman year. Hepatitis C, however, is not one of the diseases covered.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the Hepatitis C Virus and is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person. In serious cases, it can cause chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer.
“It is important to know that there is no vaccine for Hepatitis C,” said Diane Weiss, registered nurse at Schiffert Health Center. “Chronic infection occurs in 55 percent to 85 percent of those infected and 70 percent of chronically infected develop liver disease.”
Hepatitis C can be spread through injecting, un-sterilized tattoo or body piercing equipment and shared toothbrushes, razors, earrings or other hygiene items that could have Hepatitis C infected blood on them.
Bill Barham, owner of A-1 Skin and Body Shop, said that his shop takes extreme caution when it comes to clean needles.
“We use brand new needles on every new customer,” Barham said. “I usually wait to take the needle out of the gun until there is a new customer so they can watch me remove it and dispose of it.”
According to “Infection Control Today,” a survey conducted by a large Midwestern university, found that college undergraduates do not recognize that their behaviors put them at risk for getting Hepatitis C. Researchers found that 75 percent of undergraduates studied had a potential hepatitis C risk factor, from tattoos to sharing body jewelry.
“I don’t know anything about Hepatitis C, except that you can get it from dirty needles,” said Andrew Dickinson, a sophomore industrial and systems engineering major.
Dickinson is not alone. According to the survey, twenty-seven percent of undergraduates did not know that Hepatitis C virus could be spread through intravenous drug use and seventy-seven percent did not know it could be caused by intranasal cocaine use. Fifty-three percent of students were unaware that it could be spread through sharing pierced body jewelry.
“I didn’t know that you could get Hepatitis C from sharing jewelry,” said Jen Murray, a freshman physics major. “My roommate and I share earrings all the time.”
However, not all students are totally in the dark when it comes to Hepatitis C. Paul Tam, a freshman finance major, said that he learned about Hepatitis C when he went through EMT school.
“I know that most of the time you can’t get rid of it and it is commonly caused by getting tattoos and piercing with unclean needles,” Tam said.
