Race and hepatitis C

Hepatitis C patients who receive a liver from a white donor have significantly more aggressive recurrent hepatitis than those who receive a liver from a black donor, researchers have found. This is especially true for black patients who receive a liver from a white donor. Researchers looked at 165 hepatitis C patients who received a liver transplant at the hospital between 2000 and 2006. The patients were given a recurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) score between 1 and 3. The average recurrent HCV score for patients for each donor/recipient race combination was:

White donor/white recipient: 1.54
White donor/black recipient: 1.89
Black donor/white recipient: 1.18
Black donor/black recipient: 1.23