The Board found that the Veteran's current diagnosis of hepatitis C is not related to his active military service, including any reported airgun injections. The preponderance of evidence supports a finding that the Veteran's hepatitis C was caused by other risk factors such as blood transfusions and intranasal cocaine use.
The deciding factor: The VA opinions provided negative opinions regarding the likelihood of hepatitis C being related to in-service airgun injections, citing medically recognized risk factors for hepatitis C infection and the lack of scientific evidence supporting transmission via airgun injectors.
- Claimed conditions
- hepatitis C
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 13, 2012
- Citation
- 1205502
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 1205502.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has expanded the scope of the claim for major depression to encompass any mental health disability raised by the record and has remanded six issues for additional development.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for COPD, PTSD, hepatitis C, TDIU, and temporary total disability evaluation due to a failure to address his timely request for higher-level review of the July 2018 rating decision.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the claims for diabetes, gum disease, hypertension, orthopedic foot disorder, left shoulder disorder, right shoulder disorder, hepatitis C, skin disorder of the feet (claimed as trench foot), and an acquired psychiatric disorder (claimed as depression and anxiety) due to errors in duty to assist.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for hepatitis C and its secondary effects on other conditions, including cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes mellitus type II, esophageal varices, hepatic encephalopathy, and splenomegaly.
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