Hepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting the
liver,
caused by the
patitis C virus (HCV).
The infection is often
asymptomatic, but once established, chronic infection can progress
to scarring of the liver (fibrosis),
and advanced scarring (cirrhosis)
which is generally apparent after many years. In some cases, those with
cirrhosis will go on to develop liver failure or other complications of
cirrhosis, including
liver cancer[1]
or life threatening
esophageal varices and
gastric varices.
The hepatitis C virus is spread by blood-to-blood
contact. Most people have few, if any symptoms after the initial
infection, yet the virus persists in the liver in about 85% of those
infected. Persistent infection can be treated with
medication,
peginterferon and
ribavirin being the standard-of-care therapy. Fifty-one percent are
cured overall. Those who develop cirrhosis or liver cancer may require a
liver transplant, and the virus universally recurs after
transplantation.
An estimated 270-300 million people worldwide are infected with
hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a strictly human disease. It cannot be
contracted from or given to any other animal. Chimpanzees can be
infected with the virus in the laboratory, but do not develop the
disease, which has made research more difficult. No vaccine against
hepatitis C is available. The existence of hepatitis C (commonly
mispelled as hepatitus, originally
"non-A non-B hepatitis") was postulated in the 1970s and proven
conclusively in 1989. It is one of five known
hepatitis viruses: A,B, C,D,
and
E.
