Since there is no cure for Hepatitis C, everyone must take precautions to avoid transmitting or receiving HCV. HCV can only be transferred through the blood and therefore is fairly easy to contain. To prevent infection with HCV:

• Get vaccinated against Hepatitis A and B
• Get a Blood test, especially if you had a blood transfusion before 1982, received clotting factors before 1987, or if you require the use of a dialysis device (artificial kidney)
• Avoid sharing items that may have another person's blood on them (toothbrushes, razors, needles, etc)
• Avoid exposure to body fluids of infected individuals
• Wash your hands after using the toilet or changing an infants diaper
• Make sure that tattoo and body piercing parlors use sterilized needles
• Health professionals should take care not to transfer body fluids from one person to another
• Protect yourself properly when engaging in sexual intercourse. It should be noted, however, that latex condoms have not yet been proven to successfully prevent HCV infection.

Drug use and the sharing of needles is the most common source of infection with HCV. Don't to drugs! If you cannot stop, do not share needles. Free needle exchange programs exist to exchange contaminated needles with sterilized ones. Click here to link to the San Francisco Aids Foundation Prevention Project / Needle Exchange. The University of California, San Francisco, has found that this organization has helped to reduce the infection with HCV by fifty percent, as well as infection with, HIV, Hepatitis A (HAV) and Hepatitis B (HBV) for those who are not vaccinated.

If you have HCV, contain yourself!

• Do not donate blood, organs or tissue
• Protect yourself from spreading HCV when injecting drugs or engaging in sexual intercourse. Yet as said before, the degree to which latex condoms prevent HCV infection is still unknown.

For a disease that infects so many with deadly results, HCV is highly underpublicized. It takes an individual effort to make sure this virus does not spread any further.