Condition
Former sexual partner of person with hepatitis C infection
Individual at risk
Recipient
Guidance at RECRUITMENT for adult volunteer donor and maternal donor (cord blood donation)
Unacceptable if less than 12 months from last sexual contact unless donor’s HCV positive partner has been successfully treated for HCV infection and has been free of therapy for 12 months and continues in sustained remission.
Guidance at CT/WORK-UP
Inform transplant centre.
Generally unacceptable if less than 12 months from last sexual contact unless donor’s HCV positive partner has been successfully treated for HCV infection and has been free of therapy for 12 months and continues in sustained remission.
However, this timescale may be reduced at the discretion of the requesting transplant centre, particularly if nucleic acid testing is used.
Justification for guidance
Hepatitis C infection is sexually transmitted and might be passed on to recipient by transplant of stem cells. However, there is a very low risk of relapse (<1%) of infection in individuals with a sustained virological repsonse to treatment of HCV and sexual transmission of the HCV virus is rare. Thus the transmission of HCV from a successfully treated individual to a sexual partner is most unlikely.