The Board denied the veteran's claims for service connection for hepatitis C with cirrhosis and increased ratings for his left knee disability and right ear hearing loss, finding that the evidence did not support a finding of service origin or aggravation.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners concluded it was at least as likely as not that the veteran acquired hepatitis C through intravenous drug use in service, rather than from the 1971 left knee surgery. The Board found this conclusion to be more compelling given the lack of post-service evidence of hepatitis C until two decades after service.
- Claimed conditions
- Hepatitis C with cirrhosis
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 11, 2006
- Citation
- 0613784
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,987 · Granted: 15% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0613784.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to July 2, 2004 for the award of SMC based on aid and attendance was denied as there was no earlier ascertainable increase in disability.
- Granted
The Veteran's hepatitis C with cirrhosis, which caused his death, was incurred in service due to blood transfusions and morphine injections during combat.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected hepatitis C with cirrhosis is not manifested by daily fatigue, malaise, and anorexia, with minor weight loss and hepatomegaly, or; incapacitating episodes (with symptoms such as fatigue, malaise, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, arthralgia, and upper right quadrant pain) having a total duration of at least four weeks, but less than six weeks, during the past 12-month period. Therefore, the criteria for entitlement to a disability evaluation in excess of 20 percent have not been met.
- Denied
The Veteran's hepatitis C with cirrhosis was not related to his military service, including exposure to herbicide agents. The claim for service connection is denied.
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