Hepatitis C is considered a dangerous and infectious virus in the world. Most of the people in the country are affected by this virus. The liver is the most common place in the body to be affected by hepatitis C.

There are five types of hepatitis and among them, hepatitis C is the most serious one. Most of the time, the symptoms cannot be detected in this disease in the primary stage.

Causes of hepatitis C
Hepatitis C can be caused by several reasons. An overdose of chemical medications, organ transplantation, sharing of personal products, sexual intercourse, body modification are the key reasons for hepatitis C to be spread in the body. Sometimes breastfeeding can also be a reason for hepatitis C. Blood-to-blood connection is another important cause of hepatitis C. The process is that if the blood of an affected person comes to the contact of the non-affected person’s blood, then the non-affected person is infected with that virus.

Symptoms of hepatitis C
The symptom of hepatitis C can be divided into two parts, which include acute infection and chronic infection.

Acute infection
It is being surveyed that around 15% of the cases for hepatitis C are of acute infection. In these cases, the symptoms are generally vague and mild which cause nausea, weight loss, muscle or joint pain, decreased appetite, and fatigue. Sometimes it also causes liver function failure though it is not associated with jaundice. The young generation patients and also female one recover quickly from hepatitis C.

Chronic infection
If the virus is spread about 80% in the body, then it is prescribed as a chronic infection. In this scenario, it is considered by the doctors that the virus is present in the body for at least six months. The symptoms of chronic infection include the below-mentioned points:

• The bleeding starts easily from the body.
• The bruises are made easily in the body.
• The affected person suffers from poor appetite.
• The color of urine is changed to a dark color.
• The patient suffers from weight loss.
• Fluid is being generated in the abdomen part of the body.
• The legs get swelled.
• The color of the skin and eyes turn yellow.
• The affected person suffers from itchy skin.
• The person affected with hepatitis C virus suffers from drowsiness, seems to be confused every time and the speech gets slurred.
• Blood-vessels look like a spider showing up on the skin.

Treatment for hepatitis C
There are a number of treatments for hepatitis C. PCR can detect HCV RNA generally one or two weeks after the infection. Antibodies take a longer time to detect HCV. A diagnostic test is not able to differentiate between acute and chronic infection. It is very difficult for newborn babies to diagnose as maternal antibodies may persist in the body for up to 18 months.

The testing of hepatitis C begins with blood tests to detect the presence of antibodies of the HCV. If the test report is positive, another test is being done to detect the immunoassay. A number of tests are available at point of care testing which makes the test reports available within 30 minutes.

Liver biopsies are done to determine the damage of the liver. There are a number of blood tests available to determine the degree of hepatic fibrosis and alleviate the need for biopsy.

Certain tests are recommended for the affected patients who have received blood transfusions before 1992 and the people who have been in jail or have done tattoos.