If you are HCV+, alcohol and other drugs are likely to put added strain on your
already stressed liver. And even if you already have HCV, you are still
open to re-infection if you expose yourself to the virus through unsafe
drug use. There are several different types and variations of HCV, and
every time you catch a different type, it is like you have been infected
for the first time. People with multiple infections of HCV are often the
ones who become sicker. It is advisable to avoid alcohol and all street
drugs.
If users are opiate dependent methadone may be an alternative in this phase of
infection, simply because it is available in pure form.
Hepatitis generally increases the chances of overdosing (especially on alcohol,
and benzodiazepine tranquilizers such as Serepax, Rohypnol, Valium,
Mogadon and Temazepam) because the liver cannot handle the doses of drugs
to which the user was formerly accustomed.
Serepax is better than other benzodiazepines but it still presents problems.
Heroin is relatively harmless during hepatitis infection but all drugs present
problems, whether in pure or impure forms. Amphetamines and
benzodiazepines are medium destructive and alcohol is the worst.
In as far as drug use is concerned, purer forms of drugs are advisable in all
cases (for instance methadone is better than street heroin,
pharmaceutical amphetamines are better than street amphetamines) but this
is only a minor improvement, for it is the liver’s function of removing
drugs from the body which is affected by the hepatitis C virus. It is
best to be aware of any possible problem in this area and the specific
relationship between specific drugs and the liver.
It is best to be entirely drug free during the acute phase of hepatitis infection so that the liver can repair itself. Drug-taking presents less problems if you have a healthy liver. - New South Wales Users and AIDS Association “Hepatitis C and Drug Use”
