Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). HCV infection sometimes results in an acute illness, but most often becomes a chronic condition that can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.

Transmission: Contact with the blood of an infected person, primarily through sharing contaminated needles or other equipment to inject drugs. Transmission has also occurred from needlestick injuries in health care settings; unsafe injection practices and other lapses in infection control in health care settings; being born to a mother who has Hepatitis C; and through blood transfusions and organ transplants before 1992, when widespread screening of the blood supply began in the United States.

Vaccination: There is no vaccine for Hepatitis C.