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In the past, healthcare-associated transmission of hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses (HBV, HCV) was uncommon and typically occurred in acute care hospitals. Today, however, more people than before are receiving treatment in outpatient and long-term care facilities, and the CDC is increasingly receiving reports of viral hepatitis outbreaks in these settings. A recent HCV outbreak at an endoscopy clinic in Nevada resulted in the notification of more than 40,000 patients who might have been exposed.
Now, using CDC records and reports, investigators have reviewed the occurrence of nonhospital healthcare-associated viral hepatitis between June 1998 and June 2008. Their analysis included only outbreaks that involved two or more infected people a…