Transmission via blood transfusion
Until 1992, blood preserves in Germany were not tested for hepatitis C because the disease was still unknown and not sufficiently researched. Anyone who received blood transfusions before 1992 therefore has a very high risk of infection with hepatitis C. The risk of transmission was minimized by newly introduced hygiene standards. Only when blood is donated by freshly infected persons is it not always possible to detect the hepatitis C virus and therefore transmission is conceivable.
In countries where different hygienic conditions in medical care prevail, hepatitis C transmission through blood transfusions is not uncommon. or causes of hepatitis CThe transmission probability of hepatitis C through blood transfusions in Germany today is about 1:4 million. Comparable rates exist in other industrialized nations with similar hygienic conditions in medical care. In countries with lower standards of hygiene, transmission through blood preserves is not uncommon. Exact figures on transmission probabilities vary greatly from country to country.
Transmission in drug addiction
Drug addiction is considered one of the major risk factors for hepatitis C infection. Syringes are often used by several people without the needle being disinfected and sterilely cleaned in between. This makes the syringe an easy source of infection for many diseases.
Hepatitis C is a frequently transmitted disease. In the meantime, the disease is widespread among drug addicts (in 2011, this affected about 2/3 of drug addicts in Germany), so that transmission is becoming increasingly likely. The highest rate of transmission in 2011 was in Mexico, where the infection rate among drug addicts was 97%.
Transmission through dialysis
In most cases, dialysis serves as a kidney replacement procedure. Since the kidney is no longer able to rid the blood of many toxins, blood from the body is sent to a dialysis machine. There it is mechanically cleaned and then returned to the body. Since the blood is “washed” during dialysis, it is generally possible for hepatitis C to be transmitted by the dialysis machine. In Germany, about 4.7% of dialysis patients currently suffer from hepatitis C. Some of them have been infected during dialysis, but the majority of them have become dialysis patients due to hepatitis C. How large which part of the affected persons is, is not exactly investigated and therefore unknown.
