Exposure of Hepatitis C Virus

Hepatitis C is an infection caused by a virus that attacks the liver and leads to inflammation. Most people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) have no symptoms. In fact, most people don't know they have the hepatitis C infection until liver damage shows up, decades later, during routine medical tests.

Hepatitis C is one of several hepatitis viruses and is generally considered to be among the most serious of these viruses. Hepatitis C is passed through contact with contaminated blood — most commonly through needles shared during illegal drug use.

In most cases, the initial infection doesn't cause any symptoms. When it does, they tend to be vague and non-specific. The most common symptom experienced is fatigue, which may be mild but is sometimes extreme. Many people initially diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome are later found to have hepatitis C. Unlike hepatitis A and B, hepatitis C doesn't usually cause people to develop jaundice.

Most people have no symptoms until the virus causes liver damage, which can take 10 or more years to happen. Others have one or more of the following symptoms :
# yellowish eyes and skin, called jaundice
# a longer than usual amount of time for bleeding to stop
# swollen stomach or ankles
# easy bruising
# tiredness
# upset stomach
# fever
# loss of appetite
# diarrhea
# light-colored stools
# dark yellow urine

Hepatitis C is chronic when the body can’t get rid of the hepatitis C virus. Although some people clear the virus from their bodies in a few months, most hepatitis C infections become chronic. Without treatment, chronic hepatitis C can cause scarring of the liver, called cirrhosis; liver cancer; and liver failure.

Your risk of hepatitis C infection is increased if you :
# Are a health care worker who has been exposed to infected blood
# Have ever injected illicit drugs
# Have HIV
# Received a piercing or tattoo in an unclean environment using unsterile equipment
# Received a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992
# Received clotting factor concentrates before 1987
# Received hemodialysis treatments for a long period of time
# Were born to a woman with a hepatitis C infection

About 20-30 per cent of people clear the virus from their bodies - but in about 75 per cent of cases, the infection lasts for more than six months (chronic hepatitis C). In these cases, the immune system has been unable to clear the virus and will remain in the body long term unless medical treatment is given. Most of these people have a mild form of the disease with intermittent symptoms of fatigue or no symptoms at all.
About one in five people with chronic hepatitis C develops cirrhosis of the liver within 20 years (some experts believe that, with time, everyone with chronic hepatitis C would develop cirrhosis but this could take many decades).

Hepatitis C virus is usually transmitted through blood-to-blood contact. One common route is through sharing needles when injecting recreational drugs - nearly 40 per cent of intravenous drug users have the infection and around 35 per cent of people with the virus will have contracted it this way. Most people diagnosed with hepatitis C can identify at least one possible factor which may have put them at risk but for some, the likely origin of the infection isn't clear. Because it can remain hidden and symptomless for so many years, it may be very difficult to think back through the decades to how it might have begun.

You can protect yourself and others from hepatitis C if you :
# do not share drug needles
# wear gloves if you have to touch another person’s blood
# use a condom during sex
# do not borrow another person’s toothbrush, razor, or anything else that could have blood on it
# make sure any tattoos or body piercings you get are done with sterile tools
# do not donate blood or blood products if you have hepatitis C

If you think you could have been in contact with the Hepatitis C Virus at any point in the past, you can have a test to find out if you've been infected. Testing for hepatitis C infection in people who have a high risk of coming in contact with the virus may help doctors begin treatment or recommend lifestyle changes that may slow liver damage. This is recommended because hepatitis C infection often begins damaging the liver before it causes signs and symptoms.

A test is now available to identify antibody (proteins produced by the immune system in response to the virus) to HCV, which is present in approximately 50 percent of persons with early hepatitis C infections and in almost all with chronic Hepatitis C infections.