THIRTY Royal Adelaide Hospital patients have potentially been exposed to Hepatitis C by an infected employee, SA Health has revealed.

A hospital employee tested positive for the virus on September 18, and the hospital found 30 patients were at risk.

They have now been offered precautionary screening.

SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips said the worker had notified management immediately.

"The hospital immediately began an investigation to determine which patients may have been at any risk of transmission," he said.

"Using national and international guidelines, 30 patients at the RAH were identified and offered precautionary screening and counselling."

Hepatitis C is spread by blood-to-blood contact. Newly infected people do not usually have any symptoms but some will eventually develop liver cirrhosis.

Hepatitis C affects around one per cent of South Australians, with around 16,000 cases recorded in SA since 1995.

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