Preliminary investigation on intrafamilial spread of hepatitis C virus (HCV).

To determine the risk of cohabitant HCV infection, we investigated the sera of 101 family members of 53 anti-HCV antibody positive chronic liver disease patients. Altogether 14.8% of the cohabitants were also anti-HCV antibody positive, compared to a prevalence of 1.4% in the general population. These results suggest that hepatitis-C-virus may spread by person-to-person infection.