Unfortunately Hepatitis C while not common is also not rare amongst some of the older EMS/Fire providers. Pre HIV, gloves were not routinely used by many and a number of them have contracted Hepatitis C. Since latency and onset of clinical disease can be many years post infection, many went undetected until recently (5-10 years).

On the fortunate side, I would say most if not all providers are now accustom to Universal Precautions/Standard Precautions and take great care in exposure prevention.

Pete