Hepatitis C causes

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Causes

HCV 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 of HCV 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)
• Needlestick injuries in health care settings
• Birth to an HCV-infected mother
• HCV can also be spread infrequently through
• Sex with an HCV-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)