Hi Jeff, hopefully some of the rain from your parade falls into my glass (only just) half full, I could use it.

My understanding is that raised AFP can mean a lot of things but sudden increases are always worth close scrutiny. The drop is apparently probably good too but mostly gives me a low base to watch for increases over the next few months.

When you say “the pointy end” I believe you mean at the forefront of scientific research!

… Dog-bites?

Probably that or horses is how it got into the human population in the first place but dogs haven’t been domesticated long enough for it to have been a common vector within our species. On the other hand, injuries during hunting or just the scratches and cuts of general living plus huddling together for warmth at night pre-fire? Scarification? And all baby boomers will have seen the opening sequence to 2001: A Space Odyssey so will realise that even before battle axes, blood stuck to the nearest available branch/club.

So if its been around since ancient times, how has that been determined? Have mummys been found to have HepC?

I don’t believe so. Basically it’s figured it out from the RNA sequence evidence that was used to draw up the graphic I posted. If you know what Genotypes/subtypes are around now and their relationship to each other genetically plus how often the virus successfully mutates on average, you can work backwards to determine at what points the branches in the genetic tree occurred and how long it has been around.

Okay, so I’ll try and give this a go from an evolutionary genetics perspective:

As Vororo says HCV has been around for a long time. Basically we probably started out with either one (or possibly a very few) strain of HCV which crossed the barrier from some other host into the human population. Viruses don’t breed though so they basically replicate themselves with each generation being the same as the previous one.

The exception to this rule is when they mutate into something different but in almost all cases the mutation will be weaker than the original strain and won’t be as successful at replicating so will die out or be killed off by its hosts immune system ending that new strain before it has a chance to spread into other hosts. But very, very occasionally the mutation will be successful. It will be good at replicating itself accurately and may have an advantage over the original in how it manages to evade our immune system. So it will continue to thrive and may get lucky enough to spread into other peoples bloodstreams. If it does that often enough then that strain will likely continue into the future as a new genotype or subtype. Now, the chances of genotype 1b mutating into 3a are so infinitesimally small that basically “it ain’t gonna happen!”. But what will happen is that 1a will become 1ax or 1ay or if it is different enough it will create a new genotype, say GT8 or whatever we decide to call it.

Here you have to remember that because HCV is only spread by blood to blood contact it has a linear transmission path so in ancient times you would find that all the people infected in an area would have the same or similar genotypes/subtypes. Until you throw in population movement, migration and now modern jet travel, etc. then we start to get a mix of types across the world.

Below is a great picture that shows the main genotypes by their place of origin/greatest commonality. The interesting thing to note is that while there are 7 main genotypes there are many, many more subtypes. Some of these subtypes have or will die out, other new ones will be created. This is a bit like human genetics in that there are people who are blue eyed, and of these some will have blonde hair. So we have blue eyed/blondes but even within this grouping there will be some with straight hair, some with wavy hair, some with curly hair and some with frizzy hair. Each of the Geno-subtypes is a bit like that. But to keep things simple and because all the genotype 1a subtypes are very similar, we just say they are 1a. (Or blue eyed/blondes).

Hopefully all that makes sense as a very simplistic explanation. Please discuss amongst yourselves and there will be a test in the morning.

Hi Vororo,

The fully disposable syringe was invented by Colin Murdoch, a New Zealand pharmacist, in the year I was born (1956). Obviously it took a while after that to come into common let alone universal use. I have early childhood memories of GP inoculations being given by syringes that were shiny and “clinked” when returned to the little metal tray they used and just the fact that they put it back on the tray would indicate it probably wasn’t disposable. This occurred prior to migrating from UK to Aust so very early sixties when I was maybe 3-6 yr old?

Having said that and while it doesn’t matter much anyway, I can state that I’m a gentle soul and with conviction that it isn’t possible that I contracted HCV from method (b), which leaves (a) unless (d) applies.

There are also some interesting studies of how it appears to have spread outwards into the community from Glasgow hospitals post WW2.

So while I suspect us BBs have caused some interesting patterns and swirls in the dissemination of HCV, the research does seem to indicate that the greatest spread has occurred due to knowledge/technology/military issues rather than allegedly “moral” ones.

Hi Hope,

Yes, I just came back to state that I along with 18% of others was still detected at week 4, this did not worry me at all because I knew I would (and did) reach undetected. Here is the link for Dr James thread.

http://fixhepc.com/forum/viral-load-and-svr/287-viral-load-on-treatment-what-to-expect.html

Click on reply, click on the little film strip icon amongst the selectable edit icons and you will get the below screen. Copy and paste the URL for the YouTube video you want to use into the URL box and click on “insert video”. Enter any comments in the text box below it and then click on “submit”. Hope that makes sense.

Great news Michael!

Looking forward to hearing of your SVR.

Hi Fernandez, to find Private Messages click on your user name or go to your profile. You will find the PM link on the left hand side under your details.