The hepatitis C virus, which is the fastest-growing infectious disease in Australia, may be even more contagious than first thought, according to new research. In research to be presented at this week's Australian Society for Microbiology national conference in Hobart, scientists reveal that the virus could survive for up to three weeks at room temperature in discarded blood-contaminated syringes. The head of the research project, Dr Scott Bowden, said this meant that besides the obvious risk of infection from re-using needles, other injecting equipment including tourniquets, water, spoons and filters, could also harbor the virus.