Hepatitis C (or HCV) is a form of hepatitis cased by an RNA virus. HCV accounts for the majority of the hepatitis cases previously referred to as non-A, non-B hepatitis. The hepatitis C virus was first identified and described in 1989. In 1990, a hepatitis C antibody test (anti-HCV) became commercially available to help identify individuals exposed to HCV. Unlike hepatitis A which is caused by fecal contamination of food and water; or hepatitis B which is spread through contact with infected blood or other body fluids; hepatitis C is spread by direct contact with the blood of an infected person. Prior to the discovery of the virus, it was known that some agent caused hepatitis or inflammation of the liver in people who had been given blood, and it was known that the agent could be transmitted to patients and to experimental animals in blood. Before the C virus was discovered, patients with hepatitis following exposure to blood and who were negative for HAV and HBV, were said to have non-A, non-B hepatitis. It is known that most of these patients were infected with hepatitis C.
How Do I Get Hepatitis C? This virus exists primarily in the liver and in various components of blood, and not in most other parts of the body. It is usually transmitted by direct blood-to-blood contact between two people.
The most common means of transmission are:
Injection Drug use - the drug use may have happened years ago.
Blood transfusion or receiving blood products - this was particularly relevant prior to the development of testing of HCV in 1990. The risk of getting hepatitis C infection through blood transfusion is now extremely low, given the precautions that are taken in screening blood donors.
Being stuck with an infected needle of instrument - relevant for health care workers.
Potentially - tattooing, body piercing and acupuncture.
The risk of transmission of this virus by sexual means, either heterosexual or homosexual, is very low since the virus is not present in most other body secretions, including semen, urine, saliva (unless there is blood in any of these secretions), and is not present in the air infectious people breathe out.
Symptoms of HCV Most people do not feel sick when first infected. Instead, the virus stays in the liver and causes chronic liver inflammation. Current studies indicate that ~80% of people infected with hepatitis C develop a chronic state of infection. About 30% of these will develop cirrhosis of the liver. HCV appears to progress very slowly; symptoms do not appear for 10 to 20 years.
Treatment Current treatment includes interferon alpha-2b. Treatment consists of alpha interferon injections 3 times per week for 6 months to a year or longer. The effective rate is ~25%. This treatment does seem to reduce symptoms in those infected. No vaccine is currently available.
Hudson Health Center Athens, Ohio 45701 T: (740) 593-1660
