From the
Foundation for the Study of Viral Hepatitis, Madrid, Spain

In summary, HCV persists and replicates in the livers and PBMCs of a high percentage of patients who received antiviral treatment for years after normalization of liver enzyme levels and clearance of serum HCV RNA. Although it may be suspected that the risk of HCV reactivation is smaller than the risk of hepatitis B virus reactivation, persistence of HCV in these patients should be taken into account under special circumstances (e.g., immunosuppression or chemotherapy). For example, there is a report of the case of a single patient with chronic hepatitis C who experienced serum HCV RNA clearance with normalization of aminotransferase levels. After 8.5 years of test results that were negative for HCV RNA, HCV infection reemerged following prednisone therapy.