Talk:Hepatitis C virus

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Contents 1 Lifespan of HCV 2 Vaccination 3 Question about origin of electron micrograph image of hepatitis c virus? 4 Structure of HCV virion

[edit] Lifespan of HCV

How hardy is it outside the body/liver? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wblakesx (talk • contribs) 00:34, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

In dried blood plasma, the answer is "at least 16 hours", but less than 4 days - according to this study (PDF). -- MarcoTolo 01:36, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vaccination

Discussion of vaccination here is a little weak, and should perhaps be relocated to hepatitis C.

The statement that treatment with interferon is "palliative" does not belong under "vaccination", and is just plain incorrect. Sustained virologic response (SVR) happens in half (for genotype 1) or nearly 80% (genotypes 2 and 3), and is essentially a cure of the infection. Treatment is discussed in the hepatitis c article, so I removed it from this one. Scray (talk) 06:08, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Question about origin of electron micrograph image of hepatitis c virus?

I notice that the image of the virus ( "Em flavavirus-HCV samp1c.jpg" ) is of uncertain origin. It was uploaded in November 2007 by user < PhD Dre >, but he or she did not indicate where the image came from. was it his or her own scientific research? was it published? if so, where is the citation for a scientific publication? I also note that < PhD Dre > has some, um, unhappy comments on his user page, which s/he concludes by saying "Goodbye, forever." Makes me kinda nervous. If a source - published or unpublished - for this image cannot be established, perhaps it should be considered for deletion. After all, almost *any* enveloped virion - for example, HIV or Hepatitis B - will look kind of like this image. In the early part of my career I was a molecular virologist working on HCV, and our lab tried (but failed) to get an EM of the virus. I believe that subsequently images *have* been obtained and published, but I'm uncomfortable with the fact that the provenance of this particular image is undocumented. Any other thoughts? - lanephil, 2/25/08 Lanephil (talk) 22:09, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Structure of HCV virion

The effort is obvious and appreciated, but extrapolation from other viruses is not valid. What is the evidence that there is a "protein shell" or that it is icosahedral? What is the evidence that there is an RNA core surrounded by protein (rather than intermingling of RNA and protein)? Without such evidence, the text and the new image are misleading. I'll wait a little to see if there's a reply before being bold.Scray (talk) 01:51, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

• I would leave it until a better free image is available. There is evidence and, as you can see, I'm working on the article.--GrahamColm^Talk 09:52, 14 March 2008 (UTC)