The disease can also be passed from mother to infant. It is unlikely that infection occurs through casual contact, and risk of sexual transmission is thought to be very low. Although the disease has been recognized for many years, it was not until 1989 that scientists first identified and developed a test for the hepatitis C virus. The nation's blood supply is now routinely screened, and risk of contracting the virus through a transfusion is virtually non-existent. At first glance, hepatitis C may seem benign.
Most patients experience no symptoms or only slight fatigue.
Yet 80-90 percent of patients remain chronically infected with the virus, which slowly and silently takes its toll. In most cases, they are successful, highly functioning people in their 30s and 40s who had a single or small number of exposures to injection drugs in the 1960s or 1970s. Decades after exposure to the virus, chronic liver disease can result in a host of serious complications, among them cancer and total liver failure. Hepatitis C has also been linked to a variety of other, nonhepatic illnesses, including lymphoma and renal disease. Currently, treatment is limited to interferon therapy, to which 50 percent of patients will respond.