Health Conditions

Who has it?

The World Health Organization estimates that 180 million people around the world (about 3% of the population) are infected with HCV, with 3 to 4 million new infections diagnosed each year. Although it affects members of all ethnic groups, hepatitis C appears to be more common in less industrialized areas of the world, with estimates as high as 20% of the population in some countries. Current and former injectable drug users and those individuals who received unscreened blood products or transfusions make up 90% of those individuals who have chronic hepatitis C in developed countries.

According to the Directors of Health Promotion and Education, there are about 4 million people in the United States that are infected with HCV. Out of this 4 million, 15% will get better on their own, the rest will develop a long term infection. Hepatitis C is the most common chronic blood-borne infection presently in the United States. The Center for Disease Control estimates that there are 40,000 new infections each year, in the United States. Most will develop chronic liver disease, which may progress to cirrhosis or liver cancer. In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of individuals got hepatitis C from donated blood that was contaminated with HCV. Today, the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis C is very low (approximately one chance for every 100,000 units of blood that are transfused). Approximately 25% of people who have HIV/AIDS will develop hepatitis C. Persons with HIV are more prone to get hepatitis C through sexual exposure.