What is the risk of acquiring hepatitis C from transfused blood or blood products in

the United States?

Now that more advanced screening tests for hepatitis C are used in blood
banks, the risk of transmission to recipients of blood or blood products is
considered extremely rare, at <1 case per 2 million units transfused. Before
1992 (the year that blood screening became available), blood transfusion was
a leading cause of hepatitis C virus transmission (18,19).
Can hepatitis C be spread during medical or dental procedures?
As long as Standard Precautions and other infection-control practices are
consistently implemented, medical and dental procedures performed in the
United States generally do not pose a risk for the spread of hepatitis C.
However, hepatitis C can be spread in health-care settings when injection
equipment, such as syringes, is shared between patients or when injectable
medications or intravenous solutions are mishandled and become
contaminated with blood. Health-care personnel should understand and
adhere to Standard Precautions, which include maintaining injection
safety practices aimed at reducing bloodborne pathogen risks for patients
and health-care personnel. Cases of suspected health-care-associated HCV
infection should be reported to state and local public health authorities for
prompt investigation and response.
Do hepatitis C outbreaks occur in health care settings?
Yes. Hepatitis C can be spread in health-care settings (20,21) when Standard
Precautions and other infection-control practices are not consistently
implemented. In the United States, health-care-associated transmission of
hepatitis C has been associated with inadequate infection prevention
practices during inpatient care, outpatient care, and hemodialysis. These
infection control breaches have included reuse of syringes and other failures
of aseptic technique, contamination of multidose vials, and inadequate
cleaning of equipment. Diversion of controlled substances for illicit use has
also been associated with outbreaks (22). Often, health-care-associated
outbreaks are first detected by astute clinicians who find new infections in
people without risk factors and then report cases to public health authorities.