Yes, I got it from a blood transfusion when I was a child. The Hepatitis C virus wasn't identified until 1989, and blood bank wasn't wide spread until early 1990s, so anyone who received a blood transfusion before then is at risk.
For those reading, you're not going to believe this but ...
From the 70's to the 80's the medical community thought it was a good idea to mix blood from hundreds of donors and then use in transfusions.
That ended up killing nearly all of the hemophiliacs of that era, plus a good percentage of moms giving birth. Add in Hep C, and hospitals were basically butcher shops.
I followed the AIDS and hemophilia crisis in the press in real-time from the first one-column-inch Kapsoi Sarcoma stories. Boy, it wasn't pretty how the medical community reacted in slow motion.
There's an utterly horrifying Canadian movie about this.
There are quite a few adults today who might not realize or remember receiving blood transfusions as young children. It's worth asking your parents, and when in doubt get tested.
> I only caught my Hepatitis C because I wanted to an elective cosmetic medical procedure. It was my own vanity, plus pure luck, that caught it.
This wording is a little ambiguous because "catch" can mean both diagnoses and the point of infection. So I read that as you were infected by hep c during a cosmetic medical procedure.
Sorry, English isn't my first language. To clarify, I signed up for an elective cosmetic medical procedure. The doctor ordered pretty much every available lab test there is to check for any possible complications. One of the test revealed that I had elevated liver enzymes. A couple of follow-on tests later confirmed Hep C. I never went to through with the original cosmetic procedure because I'm no longer in the mood for it.
I have this genetic disorder called G6PD [0]. It's pretty common, with about 5% of human beings having it. Most people who have it go through life without ever finding out they have it, because it has almost no symptoms.
One of the symptoms though is that eating fava beans can kill you. I basically ate a bunch of these beans and soon went into shock. I was rushed to the hospital but the doctors couldn't make an accurate diagnoses. It was kinda like an episode of House, except with just regular doctors. They knew I had acute hemolysis but didn't know what was causing it. Then a nurse suggested that a blood transfusion can fight the hemolysis even without knowing the root cause; that blood transfusion saved my life. It was much later that the doctors found the G6PD; turns out my great-grandmother had it too.
That's another thing: your doctor should be informed of every major medical issue that your genetically-related family members has, since it could potentially help their diagnoses. From genetic conditions, to even common stuff like high blood pressure and diabetes.
"Don't take medical advice from strangers on the Internet." is an important rule, but "Get a yearly physical." is hardly controversial or high-risk advice, eh what?
The annual physical exam as it is currently understood by most patients and performed by many physicians is actually quite controversial. It has become more of a just-in-case tradition with little evidence for its benefits. The best approach is to consult the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and follow its screening recommendations: https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/
I suspect that unless you are a medical doctor or researcher on the cutting edge reading this you have no idea if you are in a high risk group for a disease.
The field of medicine is advancing so quickly that most people’s “common sense intuition” about what is high risk and what isn’t is likely to be very misleading.
They probably didn't realize they were in the high risk group until the diagnosis since the transfusion was so long ago. Even just talking to a doctor about screening tests can still be helpful since they will likely ask "have you ever received a blood transfusion" if you are asking about Hep C.
The original post was about covered preventative measures. They're not "unnecessary medical procedures", otherwise insurances would get rid of their obligation to pay for them. They don't advertise them a lot, which is the only thing OP did.
Therefore: Check what your insurance (and/or local governance) considers essential preventative care and discuss with a professional which of these make sense for you. Then go and do it: it's important enough that some bean counter wasn't able to remove it from your plan as unnecessary medical procedure and it's already budgeted.
