Posted by chemist on June 27, 2005, at 0:51:18
In reply to Re: Diseases spread via sharing straws (cocaine) » calamityjane, posted by AMD on June 26, 2005, at 17:15:44
> I'm not really addicted to any illicit drug, particularly in the physical sense. I've never done any opiate-based drug, nor injected anything. I've done what would be considered the "upper-class" drug cocaine. It's of course just as bad as the others in its own way, but I thank God I never tried heroin or anything else.
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> No, my problem is alcohol: and not drinking day-to-day, but rather a two- to three-week abstinence followed by a one-night bender. It's these benders that get me in trouble.
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> The most recent one resulted in the experience I've recounted herein.
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> The interesting thing is, mentally (aside from this anxiety) I don't feel nearly as bad or depressed as I typically do following a binge. Probably because I didn't over-do it: I just drank a bit, did some lines, and then crashed. If I hadn't seen blood on the straw, I would probably have brushed it off. But ... I did see blood, and so I'm scared to death.
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> I'm worried I have HCV, or at the least staph, and now I'm looking at my skin every few minutes to see if there are any boils.
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> This is misery. I wish I could go to the emergency room or something, but historically they have been fear-mongerers that just make me more anxiety-ridden before I've had a chance to see my see my doctor.
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> amdhello there, chemist here...you should not dismiss the risks associated with exposing your intranasal region with the blood of another individual in re: hepatitis C.
before the citations, you should be aware that alcohol (i do mean ethanol, the kind humans are prone to drink) and cocaine - when used together - are metabolized to a toxic intermediate called cocaethylene. the enzyme responsible is hCE1, also implicated in the first step in metabolizing heroin to morphine, and also of interest to those of us in the nerve agent business.
interestingly, in the absence of ethanol, hCE1 does not produce the more toxic metabolite, and renal elimination of benzoylecognine is the primary route for the end-game. perhaps evolution of homo sapiens - and the various enzymes we host - is providing a hint that at the very least, cocaine and ethanol should not be used together. and the product - cocaethylene - has a longer half-life than cocaine, is more toxic, and the ratio of this metabolite found in the brain to that found in blood is greater than the analogous quantity for cocaine.
a quick look at pubmed and my files does not yield a null result for intranasal cociane use and hepatitis C viral transmission/risk/etc...the abstract for one manuscript in particular is quite striking, not to mention the title: ``Detection of hepatitis C virus in the nasal secrections of an intranasal drug-user.'' McMahon et al., Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. 3 (2004). in five subjects with positive results for presence of HCV, all of them were found to test positive for the HCV RNA in their nasal secrestions.
Fuller et al. - J Urban Health 81, 20 - 24 (2004) - in the cathily-entitled pub ``Hepatitis C incidence - a comparison between injection and noninjection drug users in New York City'' = found that HCV infection took much longer in the group who did not use drugs i.v. (cocaine, the free base crack, and heroin were the drugs examined).
Galperim et al. Addiction 99, 973 - 977 (2004). ``Intranasal cocaine use does not appear to be an independent risk factor for HCV infection.'' sixty in-patients for chemical dependence were the cohort, and 15 of them tested positive for HCV (10 of the 15 had enough of a viral load for sequencing via PCR). however, the positive group did have the highest rate of i.v. drug use in addition to intranasal cocaine use.
J Addict Dis. 23, 71 - 81 (2004). Salloum et al. ``Concurrent alcohol and cocaine dependence impact on physical health among psychiatric patients.'' 38 alcohol + cocaine dependence; 38 alcohol dependence only; and 25 cocaine dependence only were examined for viral hepatitis, STDs, liver function/dysfunction, and EKG abnormalities. the alcohol + cocaine group had hihest occerrence of physical disorders and ``multiple hepatitis infections'' than the other two groups.
a study by Mijailovic et al. (Med Pregl. 56, 511 - 515 (2003)) - found that in 82 patients with viral hepatitis C (chronic), the risk factor associated with contracting the virus via intranasal administration was 2% (the lowest), with i.v. drug use at 37%.
however, hep B is also blood-borne and hep D can accompany it (two-for-one). fortunately, there are effective vaccines for hep B (hep A, too, although this should not be an issue here). no such luck for hep C. see Kuo et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. 73, 69 - 78 (2004). ``Hepatitis B infection and vaccination among young injection and non-injection drug users: missed opportunities to prevent infection.'' 200 i.v. drug users and 124 non-i.v users (all in the 15 - 30 year-old range) were examined for evidence of past hep B infection as well as past hep B vaccination. the i.v. group came up with 37% having been infected with HBV in the past, almost double the non-i.v. group (19%). in addition to sexual practices, gender, and race, missing an opportunity for vaccination was found to be true of 84% of those who had had or had HBV at the time of the study.
Koblin et al. J Med Virol. 70, 387 - 390 (2003). ``Hepatitis C virus infection among noninjecting drug users in New York City.'' age: [15,40]; duration of use: <= 10 years; n = 276. 4.7% of the cohort tested positive for HCV in sera. if heroin was added to the cocaine (also intranasal), risk was increased and determined to be independent of any other drug use or sexual behaviour of the infected.
cocaine and heroin alone are cause for hepatic impairment, via (almost exclusively) phase I (one) reactions in CYP-450; the role of cocaine in altering lipids to more toxic variations via peroxidation is also on the radar of researchers in this area.
that keywords ``cocaine,'' ``hepatitis,'' and ``new york'' yield 11 citations on pubmed - and not all are relavent to your query, naturally - ought to give a resident of New York City pause when considering accepting a bloody straw for snorting cocaine, i opine. that HIV, syphillis, unprotected sexual encounters, i.v. drug use, and HBV - to cite the more frequently-appearing - are found in concert with HCV and non-i.v. cocaine use would give one more pause, i opine (again).
new york is not alone: los angeles yields one citation; chicago, three; turning international to vancouver, seven; london, four; rome and tokyo tied with amsterdam, zero; zurich, paris, and berlin tied at one; going to nations/states australia, one; canada, five; south africa, one; united states, forty-five; and so forth. peru, bolivia, and colombia together == 0.
if you are certain that all the vectors - a fancy word for identified, specific mechanism, and chain by which the nasties are transmitted - for HIV, HBV, HCV, syphillis, and so forth are disclosed in toto to you and that not any person with whom you have now shared blood is an asymptomatic carrier of any of the above or is in early infection stages, than you ought to feel some comfort.
i suspect you are curious about incubation periods...do not let a ``negative'' result put you at ease, as the viral load for definitive results via PCR of antigens that will build in number will not reach the requisite concentration for 2 to 8 weeks, in general.
please do not make a habit of snorting blood from the nasal cavities of others into your own nasal cavities, even if you do not mean to do so during the course of snorting cocaine. it is generally regarded as an unhealthy activity.
also: please consider the other substances likely - or unlikely - found in the goods you are snorting. your dealer is likely not telling the truth in re: the purity of the cocaine or what it is cut with: this is just a guess...
more later, including ibogaine....yours, c
poster:chemist
thread:518741
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20050602/msgs/519707.html