IV drug use, multiple sex partners, tattoos and body piercing all put people at higher risk. A vaccine to prevent infection is a major research goal, but so far with little progress. Hep C is still a new virus relatively and really we ve only been able to investigate vaccine strategies over the last few years, so we re at a very early stage. Meanwhile people like Gordon Bond have few options. Hepatitis C kills 10,000 Americans every year.
Many scientists say it is frightening that a disease that kills so many is so little understood.