Hepatitis C and unsafe sex: there is some risk

AIDS Treatment News, June 24, 2005 by John S. James

By far the biggest risk of getting hepatitis C is from injecting drugs with shared needles. It has long been known that sexual transmission is much less common, but it can occur. Now some more data are available from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study.

This study recently reported that among participants with a history of injection drug use, there were 7.4 new cases of hepatitis C per 100 patient year--compared to 0.23 per 100 patient years for those without the drug use. Among those who did not inject drugs, those who reported unsafe sex had 0.7 per 100 patient years, while those who did not had 0.2 cases.

In other words, in this group being studied, injecting drugs was associated with 30 times the risk of getting hepatitis C. For those not injecting drugs, unsafe sex was associated with 3.5 times the risk.

Rauch A, Rickenbach M, Weber R and others, and the Swiss HIV Cohort Group. Unsafe Sex and Increased Incidence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection among HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex with Men: The Swiss HIV Cohort Study. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2005; volume 41, pages 395-402.