Infectious Diseases

Answer 4 Persons who received blood or blood products after 1992. Persons are not considered at risk for HCV unless they received the blood transfusion prior to 1992. Therefore, persons who received blood/blood products after this time should not be screened for HCV antibodies.2,3 All of the remaining groups of persons have risk factors for the acquisition of HCV and should be screened for the presence of HCV antibodies. Other groups that should be screened for the presence of HCV antibodies include children born to mothers with HCV, anyone receiving an organ transplant before 1992, health care workers after a needlestick injury or mucosal exposure to hepatitis C-positive blood products, persons who have ever been on hemodialysis, and persons with unexplained elevations of aminotransferase levels.4 REFERENCE 2. Schreiber GB, Busch MP, Kleinman SH, et al. The risk of transfusion-transmitted viral infections. The Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study. N Engl J Med 1996;334:1685-90. 3. Alter MJ. Epidemiology of hepatitis C. Hepatology 1997; 26:(3 Suppl 1):62S-65S. 4. Strader DB, Wright T, Thomas DL, Seeff LB; American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Diagnosis, treatment and management of hepatitis C [published erratum appears in Hepatology 2004;40:269]. Hepatology 2004;39:1147-71. Click here to return to the questions

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