Hepatitis C Treatment and Cure

What Is Hepatitis C?

Caused by one of the many hepatitis viruses, hepatitis C is an infection that invades and attacks the liver. Characterized by inflammation of the liver, hepatitis C often prevents few symptoms and is only detected years later as liver damage is discovered via routine medical tests. Generally considered one of the most serious of the viruses, hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus also known as HCV.

Hepatitis C frequently causes few to no symptoms in its early stages. If an individual does experience symptoms, however, symptoms of hepatitis C usually involve fatigue, high fever, nausea, poor appetite, muscle pain, joint discomfort, and jaundice or the yellowing of the eyes and skin. Additional symptoms may include weight loss, breast enlargement in men, an unusual rash on the palms, trouble with blood clotting and spider-like blood vessels on the skin.

Hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus or HCV. The infection is spread via contact with blood that has been or is contaminated with HCV. Intravenous drug abuse is the most common cause of hepatitis C transmission while the risk of developing HCV by sexual contact is low. Additional risk factors for developing the disease include working in health care, having HIV, receiving a piercing in an unclean environment or via unsterile equipment, getting a blood transfusion or organ transplant prior to 1992 or being born to a woman who has the hepatitis C infection.

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