'Shared banknote' health warning to cocaine users

Skyline_GTR

Skyline_GTR

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Experts are warning of a potential "health time bomb" from drug users snorting cocaine through banknotes, threatening to infect thousands with hepatitis C.

They fear that the sharing of banknotes by cocaine users will cause the numbers of those infected with hepatitis C to soar. They are particularly concerned because eight out of 10 carriers don't know they have the virus.

The disease is carried through the blood, and users can easily fail to notice small traces of blood on their banknotes, which are then passed around a group. Without treatment, hepatitis C can lead to chronic liver disease.

The Department of Health estimates that there are 200,000 people infected with hepatitis C in Britain, but the Hepatitis C Trust fears the number could be much higher.

Charles Gore, the chief executive of the trust, said: "Estimates show that around 5,000 new cases of hepatitis C are diagnosed every year - but they are mainly through chance. Because so many are undiagnosed we can't tell what kind of problem we are looking at. When 5,000 banknotes were tested in London [in 2000], 99 per cent of them had traces of cocaine on them. That tells us that there is potentially a massive problem in diagnosis and people's awareness of how easily hepatitis C can be contracted.

"We are concerned that if more is not done to alert people to the dangers of sharing, then what is already a big problem risks being turned into a health time bomb."

Professor Graham Foster, of St Mary's Hospital, London, said: "Sharing banknotes or straws is a significant risk factor that people need to be more aware of . Although the risk of contracting hepatitis C through snorting is lower than through sharing a needle, it is still there."

He added: "We can detect levels of hepatitis C for weeks after it has been on a surface, [but] infectious levels will only remain for a few hours, maybe more."

The trust has set up a campaign entitled What Not to Share, and is asking for donations to mark World Hepatitis Awareness Day today.

THE FACTS

* According to the latest Home Office figures 750,000 Britons take cocaine every year.

* In an American study last year 4.7 per cent of people who sniffed or snorted cocaine or heroin tested positive for hepatitis C.

* There is no vaccine for the hepatitis C virus.

* Cocaine costs around £30 per gram. According to health charity Drug Scope it's cheapest in Liverpool and Birmingham.

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'Shared banknote' health warning to cocaine users

The Independent
By Lauren Veevers
1 October 2006

Link
 
I dunno, people have been doing this for how many years now ? I haven't seen any HEP C explosion to date. That's not to say there isn't some instrictict risk but like Skyline said, probably WAY exaggerated.
 
^ Thats because it takes 20 or 25 years to reach viral counts that will hurt you. Until then, its pretty asymtomatic. I tested postive for Hep C a few months ago. Thankfully, my body killed it off apparently, and I just have some residual antibodies floating around making me test pos. It might be exaggerated a bit, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt worry about it. They won't test for it unless you ask for a test specifically.
 
the risk may be exagerrated, but for harm reduction sake use your own (clean) snorting device if you're into putting alot of powder up your nose (at least that's what i've always been told by my older (and wiser) peers)
 
tambourine-man said:
Haven't people been snorting coke since the late-70's?

Why wasn't there 'an explosion' in the 80's... at the height of all things coke-dom?
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I dont have the answer to that, but they didnt even develop a test for hep c until the early 90s
 
I think what they are referring to are that many baby boomers who 'engaged in risky activities' and didn't know about the disease may not realize they have it for 20-25 years, if at all.

Those that don't know pass it on to others without realizing it. I work in healthcare in Canada. All the cases of hepatitis C I see are all in people 45-55 so far, myself included. Not that there may be plenty of younger people out there too. They just may not have had it long enough to get any symptoms yet, or get it picked up 'by accident' after a routine blood test comes back with elevated AST and ALT (liver enzymes). If there is no other explaination they can test for hep C afterwards.

Right now it is mostly older people who are aware they have it . Could be way more lurking about. Hopefully the harm reduction/needle exchanges can help. Along with communication over the internet.

Younger people must remember, when we were young there was no internet. No information at your fingertips. Weird eh? We had to go to the library for info on drugs which was scarce. Some underground papers and stuff, but mostly word of mouth. No needle exchanges, although we could buy syringes OTC here, most didn't because they didn't have the money and/or didn't see the need for it.

I know when I contacted mine. It hit me in jail. In 1985 or so. I thought it was just depression or flu something. I had no appetite. My piss was brown. I was only in for a few days and didn't have a bowel movement until I got out and it was f'ing white. I went to the doc and had a hep B test (all they had then) and he pronounced 'you don't have hepatitis'. The symptoms subsided and I carried merrily along until I decided to get clean. I went into a clean halfway house and had some routine bloodwork done by a doc familiar with addicts. Year was 1991 and the test was brand new. And presto...I had Hep C.. In hindsight now I think I know when I was infected on a cocaine binge...just before jail that time I had all the weird symptoms .

And many of my friends from back then also have it. As well as some fellow employees.
 
My post was in no way directed at preventing harm reduction, there is always a calculated risk in anythink that you do, however I think the Dept od Healt and media are making it sound a lot more probable than it really is.
 
^ yeah that's it. For sure it's not beyond the realm of possibility to catch a blood transmitted virus from traces of blood on the end of a bank note geting into a cut inside the opening of your nose. You could probably in theory catch HIV too that way. But the the chances of it happening are incredibly small.

These people would be far better spending their time and column inches warning users to take cocaine in moderation bacuase of the strain it puts on ones cardiovascular system which is a much more substantial risk.
 
tambourine-man said:
Haven't people been snorting coke since the late-70's?

Why wasn't there 'an explosion' in the 80's... at the height of all things coke-dom?
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There has been a big increase in coke usage in the Uk recently. Crack has become popular and round my own area (the north west) coke use has exploded, especially amongst teenagers and people in the early 20's.
 
Yeah, I realise that, but I was enquiring as to why there hasn't been 'an explosion' in associated HepC cases.

n4k33n semi-answered that by reminding me of the fact that reliable HepC tests are a relatively new technology... something that, I must admit, I hadn't even considered (which, in itself, makes you wonder how reliable any retrospective study would ever be).

I dunno. If for some reason I suffered a brain aneurism, went partially-senile and decided that coke would be my drug of choice, sharing banknotes wouldn't be too high up on my list of worries.
 
tambourine-man said:
Yeah, I realise that, but I was enquiring as to why there hasn't been 'an explosion' in associated HepC cases.

n4k33n semi-answered that by reminding me of the fact that reliable HepC tests are a relatively new technology... something that, I must admit, I hadn't even considered (which, in itself, makes you wonder how reliable any retrospective study would ever be).

I dunno. If for some reason I suffered a brain aneurism, went partially-senile and decided that coke would be my drug of choice, sharing banknotes wouldn't be too high up on my list of worries.
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Before it was discovered you would be labeled with "Non A, Non B hepatitis". Pretty scary stuff. I wonder how many diseases are floating around now that we don't know about because they won't cause damage until years down the line.
 
stoy420 said:
so dont share snorting bills, simple, besides sharing them is a good way to loose money
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it's better to not use bills at all, since they may have been used for snorting purposes before you even got them...

get a plastic, metal or glass tube and clean it with isopropyl alcohol before you start doing lines
 
Some good advice I got from someone on this board was to take some slurpee straws from 7-11. They are free, they are individually wrapped, and they even have a little spoon on them.
 
Before it was discovered you would be labeled with "Non A, Non B hepatitis". Pretty scary stuff. I wonder how many diseases are floating around now that we don't know about because they won't cause damage until years down the line.
Click to expand...


Exactly. I was told I didn't have hepatitus when I had my initial symtoms.

So there has been a 'explosion of sorts' in boomers. A lot of people I know found out in the infamous 1991. However, the epidemiogists seem to think that the diagnosed are just the tip of the iceberg.
 
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