I know it was Hep C, but Hep C usually takes a LOOOOONNGG time to kill ya. Like, at least 20 years. Even then you die of cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. As far back as the 80’s they had interferon which isn’t perfect, but between all the factors she still would have been fairly unlucky to die from Hep C. Especially so young.
It wasn’t Hep C. though. People saying it was are talking about the book, which is different.
In 2019, Forrest Gump screenwriter Eric Roth confirmed that the illness Jenny died from was late-stage HIV. During an interview (via Yahoo Entertainment) about the film’s 25th anniversary, Roth discussed the details of a sequel that was canceled after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. He reveals that the Forrest Gump sequel was actually going to open with the revelation that Forrest Jr. had late-stage HIV, the result of acquiring the disease from his mother, Jenny.
I didn’t know that about the sequel. That’s pretty cool. I did know about the difference between the book and the movie. I read a similar discussion a few days ago. But your information is new to me.
As someone that contracted Hep C Genotype 2 from IV drug use, and has now been “cured” (meaning I have an undetectable viral load 10+ years later) though technically you are never cured from a virus. I did a brutal regimen of peg interferon and ribavirin for 6 months. The side effects are fucking horrible.
Because of this I have read about Hep C pretty exhaustively. Someone said that Jenny could have caught it from being sexually abused as a child from her father. While plausible, it is an incredibly remote chance. Hep C isn’t in body fluids like HIV. Hep C has to be blood to blood. The chances of transmission with surface blood to surface blood is incredibly remote not impossible, but not probable.
For these reasons and more it bothers me that Hep C is used as her killer in the book. It’s such an unlikely killer, and the main way you get it is through unsavory activities like IV drug use. It seems like the author chose Hep C just as a punishment for her horrible life choices. Almost like Jenny is a yin to Forrest’s yang.
Anyway, I could keep going on about this for more paragraphs, but you may know all this already, and even if you don’t you probably have better things to do with your time.
I know it was Hep C, but Hep C usually takes a LOOOOONNGG time to kill ya. Like, at least 20 years. Even then you die of cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. As far back as the 80’s they had interferon which isn’t perfect, but between all the factors she still would have been fairly unlucky to die from Hep C. Especially so young.
It wasn’t Hep C. though. People saying it was are talking about the book, which is different.
https://screenrant.com/forrest-gump-movie-jenny-mother-illness-death-hiv/
I didn’t know that about the sequel. That’s pretty cool. I did know about the difference between the book and the movie. I read a similar discussion a few days ago. But your information is new to me.
As someone that contracted Hep C Genotype 2 from IV drug use, and has now been “cured” (meaning I have an undetectable viral load 10+ years later) though technically you are never cured from a virus. I did a brutal regimen of peg interferon and ribavirin for 6 months. The side effects are fucking horrible.
Because of this I have read about Hep C pretty exhaustively. Someone said that Jenny could have caught it from being sexually abused as a child from her father. While plausible, it is an incredibly remote chance. Hep C isn’t in body fluids like HIV. Hep C has to be blood to blood. The chances of transmission with surface blood to surface blood is incredibly remote not impossible, but not probable.
For these reasons and more it bothers me that Hep C is used as her killer in the book. It’s such an unlikely killer, and the main way you get it is through unsavory activities like IV drug use. It seems like the author chose Hep C just as a punishment for her horrible life choices. Almost like Jenny is a yin to Forrest’s yang.
Anyway, I could keep going on about this for more paragraphs, but you may know all this already, and even if you don’t you probably have better things to do with your time.
Not that surprising if she got it from her dad when she was like 6 years old