Former sexual partner of person with hepatitis C infection
Recipient
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.
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.
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.