An estimated 4.1 million Americans have been infected hepatitis C, and 30,000 new cases are reported each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hepatitis C is the most common chronic blood-borne infection in the United State and is associated with a litany of physical symptoms -- weakness, stomach pain, jaundice and anemia.
Of the people who have hepatitis C, about 3.2 million are chronically infected, meaning the virus has stayed in their systems. There were 1,591 Delaware cases of chronic hepatitis C in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
Hepatitis C is most commonly spread by intravenous drug use, which accounts for 50 percent of chronic cases. Prisoners are at a higher risk of getting this infection. So are those who get tattoos or body piercings with contaminated equipment. Health care workers and others who come into frequent contact with blood are also at higher risk.
Besides the liver, hepatitis C can damage the kidney, eyes, skin and blood. About 80 percent of the people exposed to the virus have a chance of developing chronic hepatitis C. About 20 percent of people exposed to the virus are disease-free, since it spontaneously clears their bloodstream.
While difficult to quantify, the likelihood of an inmate contracting the virus through a contaminated vial is "theoretically possible," said hepatitis expert Dr. Robert Fontana.
But it would be extremely rare for him to fall ill and die within 1 1/2 years of getting this infection, he said. Hepatitis C destroys the liver over a lifetime. Patients end up dying of liver failure or liver cancer.
"Very few patients even get acute symptoms after they're exposed and they die after they've had the infection for decades, not for months," said Fontana, an associate professor of internal medicine and medical director for liver transplant at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Hepatitis B can also be transmitted through needles. But the majority of people who get it have it cleared through their system. Though not as prevalent as hepatitis C, a severe form of hepatitis B will kill a victim within three to six months. It would not take 1 1/2 years, Fontana said. There were 244 Delaware cases of hepatitis B in 2006. "Once in a while, people who have it can get really sick and get acute liver failure," he said.