A case of acute hepatitis C, most likely by interspousal sexual transmission after 40 years of marriage

Abstract

A 67-year-old man contracted acute hepatitis C after 40 years of marriage, who had no discernible risk factors for acquiring hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, except that he had a monogamous sexual relationship (once or twice a month) with his wife with chronic hepatitis C who was infected with HCV of the same genotype (1b) and had a high-titer HCV RNA in the serum (>5,000 KIU/ml). The HCV isolates from the patient and his wife shared 99.7% identity in the 1,087 nucleotide (nt) sequence of the NS5B region, although these two isolates were only 96.7% identical to the 98 reported genotype 1b isolates. Phylogenetic analysis of the 1,087-nt sequence revealed that the two isolates segregated into a cluster with a bootstrap value of 100%. These results suggest that the patient had acquired HCV infection from his wife, most likely by interspousal sexual transmission. © 2008 The Japan Society of Hepatology.