Hepatitis C
human viral infection / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hepatitis C is an infection that mostly affects the liver. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes this disease.[1] Often, a person with Hepatitis C does not have any health problems or signs that they have the disease. However, chronic infection can scar the liver. Many years of infection may cause cirrhosis. Sometimes, people with cirrhosis also have liver failure or liver cancer. They can also have very swollen veins of the esophagus and stomach. The blood loss from this problem can kill.[1]
This article needs to be updated. (January 2024) |
Hepatitis C | |
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Classification and external resources | |
ICD-10 | B17.1, B18.2 |
ICD-9 | 070.70,070.4, 070.5 |
OMIM | 609532 |
DiseasesDB | 5783 |
MedlinePlus | 000284 |
eMedicine | med/993 ped/979 |
MeSH | D006526 |
Hepatitis C is usually spread by blood-to-blood contact, when blood from a person with Hepatitis C touches or gets into another person's bloodstream. The most common ways that this happens are through intravenous drug use (when a person shoots drugs into one of their veins, with a needle that was already used by a person infected with Hepatitis C); nonsterile medical equipment (medical tools that were not cleaned well enough after being used on an infected person); and blood transfusions (when a person is given blood that came from an infected person).
Around the world, about 130–170 million people have Hepatitis C. Scientists began studying the Hepatitis C virus in the 1970s, and in 1989 they proved that the virus exists.[2] As far as scientists know, this virus does not cause disease in any animals other than humans.
The medications that are normally used to treat Hepatitis C are called peginterferon and ribavirin. Between 50 and 80% of people who are treated are cured. However, if a person's Hepatitis C has got worse so much that the person has cirrhosis or liver cancer, the person might need a liver transplant (they might need to have surgery where they are given another person's liver, or part of another person's liver). This makes it possible for the person to survive, but the Hepatitis C virus usually comes back after the transplant.[3] There is no vaccine that works to prevent people from getting Hepatitis C.