Frequently Asked Questions

The following persons are at known to be at increased risk:

• Current or former injection drug users, including those who injected only once many years ago
• Recipients of clotting factor concentrates made before 1987, when more advanced methods for manufacturing those products were developed
• Recipients of blood transfusions or solid organ transplants before July 1992, when better testing of blood donors became available
• Chronic hemodialysis patients
• Persons with known exposures to Hepatitis C, such as
  • health care workers after needle sticks involving Hepatitis C positive blood
  • recipients of blood or organs from a donor who tested Hepatitis C-positive
• Persons with HIV infection
• Children born to Hepatitis C-positive mothers

Hepatitis C is transmitted primarily through large or repeated percutaneous (i.e., passage through the skin) exposures to infectious blood, such as:

• Injection drug use (currently the most common means transmission in the United States)
• Receipt of donated blood, blood products, and organs (once a common means of transmission but now rare in the United States since blood screening became available in 1992)
• Needle stick injuries in health care settings
• Birth to an Hepatitis C-infected mother

Hepatitis C can also be spread infrequently through:

• Sex with a Hepatitis C infected person (an inefficient means of transmission)
• Sharing personal items contaminated with infectious blood, such as razors or toothbrushes (also inefficient vectors of transmission)
• Other health care procedures that involve invasive procedures, such as injections (usually recognized in the context of outbreaks)

Transmission does not occur by:

• Sharing eating utensils
• Breastfeeding
• Hugging, kissing, holding hands, coughing, sneezing, or other casual contact
• Hepatitis C virus is not found in urine or feces
• Through food or water

Infection with Hepatitis C can lead to immunity - if you recover from acute infection and the infection does not progress to chronic infection. Approximately 75-85% of people acutely infected will go on to develop a chronic infection.

Once you recover from Hepatitis C, you must get tested by your provider to see if you have cleared the virus. Being free from symptoms does not mean that your immune system fought off the infection.

Chronic Hepatitis C is a serious disease that can result in long term health problems, including liver damage, liver failure, liver cancer, or even death. Approximately 8,000 to 10,000 people die every year from Hepatitis C-related liver disease in the United States.

Persons with newly acquired Hepatitis C infection usually are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms that are unlikely to prompt a visit to a health care professional. When symptoms occur, they can include:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Dark urine
• Clay-colored stool
• Abdominal pain
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Joint pain
• Jaundice