Are you worried about hepatitis C? Do you have a question about hepatitis? Is there anything else you are concerned about? In 2016, hepatitis C caused about 399,000 deaths, while there were 17,253 deaths in America. Reading this article will not only answer all your questions but also put your mind at ease.
What Is Hepatitis C?
Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis virus. Hepatitis C is a viral infection that usually affects the liver. The virus usually spreads through blood only when it enters into contact with an infected person’s blood. It cannot spread through the air like viruses that cause the common cold or flu. The virus can cause liver inflammation to vary degrees and affects more than 70 million people worldwide today. Hepatitis C has been known to be a deadly virus since 1989 when blood products started being screened for it and in 1991 when first-ever HCV treatment was developed to prevent it from spreading.
When you contract the virus, you are then infected, and therefore its severity will depend on whether or not you developed the symptoms.
How Do You Get Hepatitis C?
You can get hepatitis C in several different ways. Hepatitis C is an infectious disease that is transmitted through contact with the blood of an infected person. It can also be transmitted by sharing equipment contaminated with traces of blood. The most common way it is spread, however, is through intravenous drug use. You can get it from using intravenous needles.
Sharing needles will expose you to the virus as well as individuals with the virus who cough or sneeze on you if you are not keeping your distance
The virus can be transmitted through the spread of blood. Sharing needles, for example, is a common way of contracting the virus, but it can also be transmitted through organ transplantation, unprotected oral sex, or sexually transmitted diseases.
There are hundreds of millions of people who have the virus but do not know it because they do not have any symptoms. Only a third of people who have it will experience symptoms. The majority of the time, a person with hepatitis C will have no more than a mild feeling of fatigue, loss of appetite, and mild depression. You can see that this virus is not very severe, but it is still very unpleasant and can be hard to get rid of once you are infected with it.
The virus is transmitted not only from person to person but from mother to child as well. The virus can only transfer from one person to another if there is a great deal of the virus. It is uncommon for women to get the virus from men and vice versa, and it happens even less frequently through breastfeeding.
For the most part, the virus is spread when there is a large amount of the virus in the body. The larger and more present the virus in the body, the more likely you are to get the virus. However, with regular healthcare, you can get the virus levels down to a very small amount, which will stop you from transmitting it to others.
What Are the Symptoms of Hepatitis C?
A person who has hepatitis C will not have any symptoms. Most people who do have symptoms will not know what they are from. The most common signs that people get when they have hepatitis C include:
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Abdominal pain
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Pain in your upper right abdomen
- Loss of appetite
- Stomach pain
- Dark urine
- Jaundice, or yellowing of the skin and eyes
After some time, a person may also develop:
- Joint pain
- A skin rash
- Muscular aches
- Itchiness
Other symptoms that a person might get:
- Persistent abdominal pain
- Low-grade fever
- Pain in the joints and muscles of the body, in particular, the upper arms and legs
- Shortness of breath
- Myalgia
- Headaches
- Night sweats
However, some people will not show any symptoms at all. They will get the virus and not even know it. Doctors can detect the virus though by doing blood (hepatitis C) testing.
Is Hepatitis C Curable?
Hepatitis C is curable. Around 95% of people infected with the hepatitis C virus can be cured with the current treatment. However, this is just the average. Only a small percentage of people infected, who get their medication in time, will overcome the disease. The treatment is severe and usually lasts for 12 weeks. If you get the treatment on time, you have a good chance of getting it cured. Getting cured also makes you less likely to transmit the virus to other people.
If you go to the doctor when you suspect that you have the virus, you will get tested for it. If you are tested positive, don’t worry about how you have contracted the virus since there are so many different ways to get it.
How Is Hepatitis C Treated?
There is an injection that can be used for treating hepatitis C infection. The problem is that most people don’t get the injection until they develop symptoms. When they develop symptoms, they get a liver biopsy to determine if they have the virus.
Since the virus is so hard to detect, it is often left untreated until more damage occurs. The damage caused to the liver is cumulative. If the liver gets damaged enough, it may not be able to recover.
Hepatitis C can be treated with medications called “interferon” and a combination of other antiviral medications called “direct-acting antiviral agents.”
It often takes years for a person to realize that they have it because they are not showing any symptoms. Even with symptoms, they often don’t know what it is and don’t go to a doctor. It isn’t until the damage is too much that they go to the doctor. If they get treatment when they are in the early stages, they can be cured of the disease.
This disease takes a long time to develop and take over the liver. If it can be detected early, it will be easier to remove it entirely. It is less likely that the treatment will ever work if the state of the liver ultimately leads to cancer. Although, the bar is high for eliminating the cancer cells.
In general, there are different treatment options for hepatitis C:
- Antiviral therapy (treatment that contains direct-acting antivirals)
- Interferon therapy
- Limiting alcohol drinking
- Limiting or avoiding the use of recreational injection drugs
- Getting blood and/or organ transplants from individuals who do not have hepatitis C
- Avoiding high-risk sexual behavior
- Liver transplantation that gets rid of the hepatitis C in the body
If you have hepatitis C and want to clear up your mind, you can get help with treatment. You can choose the treatment that will not only make you feel better but also heal your liver. Giving your liver a rest and getting it ready to fight off future infections can increase your life expectancy.
Conclusion
Hepatitis C is not usually a serious disease, but it can become a severe long-term infection. If you know that you do not have hepatitis C, you can help prevent your risk of contracting it by proper hygiene and proper care.
References
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c#:~:text=A%20significant%20number%20of%20those,carcinoma%20(primary%20liver%20cancer).
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/71/5/1149/5581721
https://www.healthline.com/health/hepatitis-c/facts-statistics-infographic#hepatitis-c-facts
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2882097/#:~:text=End%2Dstage%20liver%20disease%20due,transplantation%20in%20the%20western%20world.&text=The%20current%20standard%20therapy%20for,for%2024%20to%2048%20weeks.
https://www.healthline.com/health/hepatitis-c/treatment#diagnosis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5373481/
https://www.healthline.com/health/hepatitis-c/effects-on-the-body
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265584/
https://50years.ifpma.org/in-focus/hepatitis-c/