Emergency and medical workers who are exposed to blood and accidental needle sticks are at risk. Between 10 percent and 20 percent of people with hepatitis C, like Mr. Cornett, cannot pinpoint the source of their infection with any certainty. While about 2 percent of the public has the virus, between 7 percent and 10 percent of veterans have it, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Medical and military officials speculate that the high prevalence of the disease could be the result of exposure to blood in the field, a higher rate of blood transfusion than the public or experimentation with drugs in the 1960s and 1970s. Charles Richardson, a Chattanooga business owner and president of the Tennessee State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America, theorizes that gamma globulin shots given to soldiers who were shipped overseas may be to blame for some infections, though there have been no documented cases of transmission through the shots.
Veterans seem to be at a higher risk, but the general public needs to know, too.
Some have donated blood, and the virus is detected by the blood bank during screening. Others have had a routine liver function test and had abnormal results that prompt further testing. At Blood Assurance in downtown Chattanooga, the daily routine of testing donated blood turns up a positive hepatitis C test about every other day, said Medical Director Dr. Robert Hillwig. When hepatitis C has been detected in blood, the small plastic wells holding the sample turn from clear to amber. On a recent Tuesday morning at Blood Assurance, two amber spots surfaced in a tray of 60 wells.