The hepatitis C virus is transmitted only from blood to bloodstream. Infection occurs when blood with hepatitis C virus gets into the bloodstream of another person. Australians most at risk of contracting hepatitis C are injecting drug users, haemophiliacs who had blood product transfusions before 1990 and prisoners due to the high prevalence of injecting drug use in prisons.

Common ways that Australians have been infected with Hepatitis C include:

• sharing injecting drug equipment
• receiving blood transfusions or blood products before 1990 (especially those who have had multiple transfusions).
• tattooing, body piercing and other skin penetration where unsterilised equipment had been used.
• non-sterile medical or dental injections or other procedures in countries of high incidence.

Hepatitis C is not classified as a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Transmission of hepatitis C during sexual activity can occur only where there is potential for blood to blood contact. The risk of blood to blood contact increases when STI such as herpes is present. The virus is present in menstrual blood of women who are hepatitis C positive and protective sex (using condoms, dams and/or gloves) should be practiced during menstruation.

The risk of mother to baby transmission of hepatitis C is very low. Women with hepatitis C are encouraged to have natural births and to breastfeed unless nipples are cracked and bleeding.

Already having Hepatitis C doesn’t protect you from re-infection. You can become infected with different strains and experience another acute stage of infection. It is also possible to be infected with more than one strain of the hepatitis C virus although one strain tends to be dominant at any one time. Similarly, having had hepatitis C and clearing the virus does not make you immune.