Diving and Hepatitis C: Know the Facts

You have probably seen the television ads aimed at baby boomers concerning hepatitis C (HCV). They warn you of your chances of having HCV while advertising medications that will cure HCV in 8-12 weeks. You may, in fact, know you are infected, or a dive buddy may have told you, confidentially, that they have it. Confidentially, because there is a lot of shame and discrimination surrounding this disease.

Hepatitis C is NOT casually transmitted by kissing, hugging, food or drink. Transmission can only occur through blood-to-blood contact via contaminated blood products, needle sharing, medical sharp devices, tattooing, and, much more rarely, through sex with an HCV-infected person or from mother to child. The current medical literature does not indicate transmission in any other manner. Nevertheless, Hepatitis C may be undiagnosed for years, so many diseased persons are unaware they are infected and may pass the infection to others with blood exposure and intimate contact.

As a diver, you should know the facts about chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus and whether it affects your diving lifestyle ...

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Undercurrent has recently posted the entire article as a blog, written by divers Dr. Robert Gish, adjunct professor of medicine at Stanford University and C.L. Kutz, an active research and recreational diver for 25 years, who was booted from a volunteer diving job at the Monterey Aquarium when it was learned she had been cured of Hepatitis C.