Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is estimated to cause chronic infection in 3% of the population globally. Only limited treatment options are available for these millions of people chronically infected with HCV. In the absence of a complete remission, these patients are at risk of developing liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, both of which carry serious consequences. As yet, there is no preventative vaccine that can control further spread of new HCV infection. HCV is a single positive stranded RNA virus that belongs to the Flaviviridae family. It exists as 7 genotypes, which have uneven geographic distributions. It is postulated that human immune responses to different HCV genotypes may be divergent. The experimental evidence for this hypothesis, however, is insufficient. In this paper, we review the existing literature on the adaptive human immune responses to HCV, with specific emphasis on T cell responses to HCV 1b subtype of genotype 1. We also discuss the importance of gaining additional information on human T cell responses to the development of a vaccine for HCV.