hepatic and biliary disorders
Hepatitis C, Acute
Prevention of Acute Hepatitis C
Patients should be advised to avoid high-risk behavior (eg, sharing needles to inject drugs, getting tattoos and body piercings). Blood and other body fluids (eg, saliva, semen) are considered infectious. Risk of infection after a single needlestick exposure is about 1.8%. Barrier protection is recommended, but isolation of patients is of no value in preventing acute hepatitis C. Risk of transmission from HCV-infected medical personnel appears to be low, and there are no CDC recommendations to restrict health care workers with hepatitis C infection from working. Posttransfusion infection is minimized by avoiding unnecessary transfusions and screening all donors for hepatitis B and C. Screening has decreased the incidence of posttransfusion hepatitis B and hepatitis C, which are now extremely rare in the US. No product exists for immunoprophylaxis of HCV. The propensity of HCV for changing its genome hampers vaccine development. Preexposure or postexposure prophylaxis with antiviral therapy is not recommended. 