Hepatitis C is a virus that affects the liver. It is one of six types of hepatitis viruses, each given a letter designation. The six identified hepatitis viruses are A, B, C, D, E and G. All six of the hepatitis viruses cause the liver to become inflamed.
According to the Mayo Clinic, most people do not know they have hepatitis C until decades after becoming infected. Although it's possible to contract hepatitis C through sexual transmission, it's not likely. The majority of people who have hepatitis C were infected with it via a blood transfusion that was performed before 1992, the year improved blood screening tests were introduced. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), transmission of hepatitis C happens via contact with the blood of an infected person and occurs most often from shared needles that are used to inject drugs. There is no vaccine for the virus.
Diagnosis
Hepatitis C is diagnosed by lab tests on blood. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, it takes one to two weeks for lab results to come back. The first test that is performed checks for antibodies to the hepatitis C virus. The presence of antibodies indicates that a person has been exposed to hepatitis C. If antibodies are present, a second test is performed to check for the presence of the virus itself in the blood.
Symptoms
According to the CDC, 70 to 80 percent of people who have the hepatitis C virus do not experience any symptoms. For the people who do have symptoms, these can include nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting. Fatigue can be a symptom along with fever and loss of appetite. Urine can also turn dark, and bowel movements can become clay-colored. There may be joint pain and jaundice, which is a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes.
Statistics
Of the people who become infected with the hepatitis C virus, between 75 and 85 percent will develop chronic hepatitis C infection. Of the people who develop chronic, or long-term, hepatitis C infection, between one and five percent will die from liver cancer or cirrhosis, between 5 and 20 percent will develop cirrhosis over a period of 20 to 30 years and between 60 and 70 percent will develop chronic liver disease.
Recovery
Between 15 and 25 percent of people who become infected with the hepatitis C virus clear it from their systems without treatment. These are the people who do not develop chronic hepatitis C infection. According the CDC, there is no clear understanding of why this occurs.
