[Modes of hepatitis C virus transmission: methodological approaches]

Since the mid-1990s, hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission through blood transfusion has become very rare in western countries. Better understanding of the current modes of transmission is needed. However, risk factors have been mainly estimated on prevalent HCV infections. In this paper we describe the methods of the main case-control studies and their contribution to the knowledge on modes of HCV transmission. We also report the results of a case-control study of incident HCV infections recently carried out in France which confirms the continuing major role of IV drug use and suggests that transmission related to invasive care remained a potential source of new HCV infection between 1995 and 2001.