Hepatitis C can be transmitted sexually

To date, hepatitis C (HCV) was believed to be almost exclusively transmitted through direct contact with infected blood. Scientists in Bern now demonstrated that the most likely cause of the epidemic increase in infections in specific groups of people is sexual transmission.

As early as 2005, scientists at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in the Inselspital Bern had begun to suspect that the increase in new hepatitis C infestions in homosexual men with HIV could only be explained by sexual transmission. Now Andri Rauch, Gilles Wandeler and Hansjakob Furrer in cooperation with the University of Bern Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine succeeded in confirming this transmission path in a long-term study on more than 11,000 men infected with HIV.

Infection not just from shared needles
Until now, it had been assumed that drug users sharing needles are most at risk of infection with hepatitis C. As part of the Swiss HIV cohort study (SHCS), the scientists examined changes in hepatitis C transmission paths between 1998 and 2011.

The long-term observations revealed a worrying 18-fold increase in hepatitis C infections in sexually active homosexual men with HIV over the last six years. This is a clear indication that in certain cases hepatitis C is sexually transmitted. By contrast, there was a fall in the number of new infections in patients sharing needles, while the figure remained at a constant low for patients who had sex with partners of the opposite sex. These results are of great significance also in terms of infection prevention.

Hepatitis C Virus Infections in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study: A Rapidly Evolving Epidemic, Gilles Wandeler, Andri Rauch, et al., Clinical Infectious Diseases, 14. August 2012.

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