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Author(s): Cheryl A.Glass

  1. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends offering a one-time screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections to asymptomatic adults born between 1945 and 1965 without known liver disease or functional abnormalities.
  2. The USPSTF also recommends screening for HCV infection in persons at high risk for infection:
    1. The most important risk factor for HCV infection is past or current injection drug use. Intranasal drug use is also an additional risk factor.
    2. Receipt of a blood transfusion before 1992.
    3. Long-term hemodialysis and hemophilia.
    4. Percutaneous exposures including unregulated tattoo.
    5. High-risk sexual behaviors (multiple sex partners, unprotected sex, sex with an HCV-infected person or injection drug user, and men having sex with men [MSM]).
    6. Birth to an HCV-infected mother.
    7. Incarceration.
  3. For those with reactive test results, the anti-HCV test should be followed with an additional, supplemental, or confirmatory test for the presence of the virus (see section “Hepatitis C” of Chapter 14).