Hepatitis C can be sexually transmitted

The virus that causes hepatitis C (HCV) can be sexually transmitted and the risk is directly related to the frequency of intercourse. However, the association does not seem to be very strong.Contact with infected blood is the main route by which HCV is transmitted. In up to 50 percent of cases, however, a transmission route is never identified.Researchers from the Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, hypothesised that some of the unknown cases may be caused by sexual transmission. To investigate this, they assessed HCV transmission between 600 patients with chronic hepatitis C and their spouses. In a subgroup of 216 spouses who were HCV-negative at the start of the study, the researchers assessed transmission rates over an average period of 36 months.

Antibodies against HCV, indicating exposure to the virus, were detected in two percent of the spouses. The average age and duration of marriage were not associated with the likelihood of detecting HCV antibodies. In contrast, an association between the frequency of sexual intercourse and HCV transmission risk was observed. This relationship, however, was not statistically significant, indicating the association was not very strong. In the subgroup of 216 spouses, none of the HCV-negative subjects became positive during follow-up, the researchers found.The risk of HCV transmission between monogamous sex partners may be related to the number of sexual intercourse events. The absence of any evidence of transmission in the three-year follow-up period suggests that this relation is not very strong.

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