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GB virus C, formerly known as Hepatitis G virus, is a virus in the Flaviviridae family which has not yet been assigned to a genus, is known to infect humans, but is not known to cause human disease. There have been reports that HIV patients coinfected with GBV C can survive longer than those without GBV C, but the patients may be different in other ways. There is current active research into the virus’ effects on the immune system in patients coinfected with GBV C and HIV.

HGV, also called hepatitis GB virus, was first described early in 1996. Little is known about the frequency of HGV infection, the nature of the illness, or how to prevent it. What is known is that transfused blood containing HGV has caused some cases of hepatitis. For this reason, patients with hemophilia and other bleeding conditions who require large amounts of blood or blood products are at risk of hepatitis G. HGV has been identified in between 1 to 2% of blood donors in the United States. Also at risk are patients with kidney disease who have blood exchange by hemodialysis, and those who inject drugs into their veins. It is possible that an infected mother can pass on the virus to her newborn infant. Sexual transmission also is a possibility.

Often patients with hepatitis G are infected at the same time by the hepatitis B or C virus, or both. In about three of every thousand patients with acute viral hepatitis, HGV is the only virus present. There is some indication that patients with hepatitis G may continue to carry the virus in their blood for many years, and so might be a source of infection in others.

Hepatitis G virus (HGV), also known as GB virus C (GBC), is a benign virus that infects humans, but has not been proven to cause disease. Although the virus lives in the blood, and is genetically similar to hepatitis C, there is no indication that it results in liver damage like other types of hepatitis. It was first discovered in 1995, and is believed to infect between two and five percent of people worldwide.

Hepatitis G is known to cause persistent infection in 15 to 30 percent of adults for as long as nine years. Many times infected persons will not be aware that they carry the virus, because symptoms are non existent. It is commonly found in co-infections with other viruses, such as hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In fact, more than one third of people infected with HIV are also infected with hepatitis G.

The hepatitis G virus is transmitted through blood. Sharing personal care items such as razors and toothbrushes infected with the virus can spread the disease, as well as sexual intercourse, from mother to child at birth, intravenous drug use, or other blood to blood contact. The virus cannot be contracted through saliva, semen, or any other bodily fluids other than blood.

Some people are at higher risk for contracting hepatitis G than others. Hemodialysis patients, users of injected drugs, and health care workers exposed to blood on a regular basis, are at the highest risk for becoming infected with the virus. Anyone who receives a tattoo, acupuncture, or a body piercing is at medium risk, if the tools being used are not properly sterilized.

Hepatitis G virus and GB virus C are RNA viruses that were independently identified in 1995, and were subsequently found to be two isolates of the same virus. Although GBV C was initially thought to be associated with chronic hepatitis, extensive investigation failed to identify any association between this virus and any clinical illness. GB Virus C is named after the surgeon, G. Barker, who first fell ill in 1966 with a non A non B hepatitis which at the time was thought to have been caused by a new, infectious hepatic virus.