Recommendations for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection and HCV-Related Chronic Disease

Prospective studies of transfusion recipients in the United States demonstrated that rates of posttransfusion hepatitis in the 1960s exceeded 20% ⁽⁶⁾. In the mid-1970s, available diagnostic tests indicated that 90% of posttransfusion hepatitis was not caused by hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses and that the move to all-volunteer blood donors had reduced risks for posttransfusion hepatitis to 10% ^(7,8,9). Although non-A, non-B hepatitis (i.e., neither type A nor type B) was first recognized because of its association with blood transfusion, population-based sentinel surveillance demonstrated that this disease accounted for 15%-20% of community-acquired viral hepatitis in the United States ⁽⁵⁾. Discovery of HCV by molecular cloning in 1988 indicated that non-A, non-B hepatitis was primarily caused by HCV infection ^{(5,10,11,12,13,14)}.