[Hepatitis C. Virology, transmission modes, clinical aspects, prevention and therapy]

Of the various forms of chronic viral hepatitis, in Germany 60-70% are caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The virus arrives inconspicuously, i.e. an acute infection only leads to an increase in transaminases in 40% of cases and to an increase in bilirubin in only 20%. However, approximately 90% of infections take a chronic course and in 20% this leads to cirrhosis after only 20 years. The infection rate of medical personnel is not significantly higher than in the general population. The transmission of HCV from patients to medical personnel, e.g. by needle stick injuries, is very rare and the risk of infection is less than 1%. Even less frequently transmission of HCV in the reverse direction from medical personnel to patients occurs. An active or passive prophylactic immunization is not possible and protective immunization is not yet foreseeable. Recently, progress has been made with chemotherapeutical treatment of HCV. The present state-of-the-art is pegylated interferon-a in combination with ribavirin. The success rate in HCV genotypes 2 and 3 is clearly higher with 70-80% than in genotypes 1 and 4 with approximately 40%. Both drugs have significant side-effects but better forms of medication are not yet available.