Hepatitis C

The Hepatitis C virus is a fairly new entity for professional practitioners of medicine, since it was identified as recently as 1989.

Transmission

The virus is mainly transmitted through transfusion of contaminated blood or using contaminated equipment such as needles. Most of the Hepatitis C cases are intravenous drug users, who share needles. However, unlike Hepatitis A and B, cases of transmission of Hepatitis C virus from a mother to a child or by sexual intercourse is very rare.

Incubation period

Usually six to seven weeks.

Symptoms

Hepatitis C is usually asymptomatic or may show mild symptoms of viral hepatitis such as fever, lack of appetite and weakness. But, if the affected person consumes alcohol regularly or is a chronic carrier of the infection, he may develop Cirrhosis of liver or liver cancer later in life.

Prevention measures

• Screening donated blood for Hepatitis C virus before transfusion.
• The most popular drug used to treat Hepatitis C is Interferon, which is very expensive and has to be administered several times a week for several months.
• Hepatitis C vaccine has not been discovered yet.