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The following text is from an archived Red Book® edition and may not reflect current recommendations or information. To view the current edition, click here.

Section 3. Summaries of Infectious Diseases

Hepatitis C

Clinical Manifestations
Etiology
Epidemiology
Diagnostic Tests 1
Treatment
Isolation of the Hospitalized Patient
Control Measures

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CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS: The signs and symptoms of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are indistinguishable from those of hepatitis A or B. Acute disease tends to be mild and insidious in onset, and most infections are asymptomatic. Jaundice occurs in <20% of patients, and abnormalities in liver function tests generally are less pronounced than abnormalities in patients with hepatitis B virus infection. Persistent infection with HCV occurs in 50% to 60% of infected children, even in the absence of biochemical evidence of liver disease. Most children with chronic infection are asymptomatic. Although chronic hepatitis develops in approximately 60% to 70% of infected adults, limited data indicate that <10% of infected children develop chronic hepatitis, and <5% develop cirrhosis. Infection with HCV is the leading reason for liver transplantation among adults in the United States.


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ETIOLOGY: Hepatitis C virus is a small, single-stranded RNA virus and is a member of the Flavivirus family. Multiple HCV genotypes and subtypes exist.


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EPIDEMIOLOGY: The prevalence of HCV infection in the general population of the United States is estimated at 1.8%. The seroprevalence is 0.2% for children younger than 12 years of age and 0.4% for adolescents 12 to 19 years of age. Seroprevalences vary among populations according to their associated risk factors.

Infection is spread primarily by parenteral exposure to blood of HCV-infected people. The current risk of HCV infection after blood transfusion in the United States is estimated to be less than 1 in 1 million units transfused because of the exclusion of high-risk donors and of HCV-positive units by antibody testing and screening of pools of blood units by some form of nucleic . . . [Go to Full Text]


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