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The Hepatitis-C virus (HCV) is one of the most important causes of chronic liver disease in the United States. It accounts for about 15 percent of acute viral Hepatitis, 60 to 70 percent of chronic Hepatitis, and up to 50 percent of cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease, and liver cancer. Of the U.S. population, 1.6 percent, or an estimated 4.1 million Americans, have the antibody to HCV (anti-HCV), indicating ongoing or previous infection with the virus. Hepatitis-C causes an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 deaths annually in the United States. Risk Factors and Transmission HCV is spread primarily by contact with infected blood and blood products. Blood transfusions and the use of shared, unsterilized, or poorly sterilized needles, syringes and injection equipment or paraphernalia have been the main routes of the spread of HCV in the United States. With the introduction in 1991 of routine blood screening for HCV antibody and improvements in the test in mid-1992, transfusion-related Hepatitis-C has virtually disappeared. At present, injection drug use is the most common risk factor for contracting the infection. However, some patients who acquire Hepatitis-C do not have a recognized risk factor or known exposure to infected blood or to drug use. The most common risk factors for acquiring Hepatitis-C are -
injecting drugs, including having used injection drugs only once many years ago -
having a blood transfusion before June 1992, when sensitive tests for anti-HCV were introduced for blood screening -
receiving clotting factor concentrates (such as anti-hemophilic factor) before 1987, when effective means to inactive HCV were introduced -
hemodialysis for kidney failure -
birth to an HCV-infected mother -
suffering a needle-stick accident from a person with Hepatitis-C
Other risk factors that have a slightly increased risk for Hepatitis-C are |
