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Overview
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver inflammation, sometimes leading to serious liver damage. It spreads through contaminated blood.
Until recently, treatment required weekly injections and oral medications that many HCV-infected people couldn’t take because of other health problems or unacceptable side effects.
Symptoms of hepatitis c
Long-term infection virus is known as chronic hepatitis C. It is usually a “silent” infection for many years, until the virus damages the liver enough to cause the signs and symptoms of liver disease.
Signs and symptoms include:
- Bleeding easily
- Bruising easily
- Fatigue
- Poor appetite
- Yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes (jaundice)
- Dark-colored urine
- Itchy skin
- Fluid buildup in your abdomen (ascites)
- Swelling in your legs
- Weight loss
- Confusion, drowsiness and slurred speech (hepatic encephalopathy)
- Spiderlike blood vessels on your skin (spider angiomas)
Causes of Hepatitis C
The infection spreads when blood contaminated with the virus enters the bloodstream of an uninfected person.
Risk factors
Your risk of infection is increased if you:
- Are a health care worker who has been exposed to infected blood, which may happen if an infected needle pierces your skin
- Have ever injected or inhaled illicit drugs
- Have HIV
Complications
- Scarring of the liver (cirrhosis). After decades of hepatitis C infection, cirrhosis may occur. Scarring in your liver makes it difficult for your liver to function.
- Liver cancer. A small number of people with hepatitis C infection may develop liver cancer.
- Liver failure. Advanced cirrhosis may cause your liver to stop functioning.
Globally, HCV exists in several distinct forms, known as genotypes. Seven distinct HCVgenotypes and more than 67 subtypes have been identified. The most common HCVgenotype in the United States is type 1.
Although chronic hepatitis C follows a similar course regardless of the genotype of the infecting virus, treatment recommendations vary depending on viral genotype. Test for it now.
