Home Digestive system Hepatitis C: causes, symptoms and treatment

Hepatitis C: causes, symptoms and treatment

by Alivia Nyhan
Published: Last Updated on

Hepatitis C is a virus that causes inflammation of the liver. Therefore, this body stops working correctly because of the passage of bile, which processes the substances that enter the body through food blocks and breaks down fat. The main symptom is what is known as jaundice: the yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes. In FastlyHealwe detail the causes, symptoms and treatment of hepatitis C.

Causes of Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C can be contracted in different ways; these are:

  • If the blood of someone with hepatitis C comes into contact with a wound on our skin, with our eyes, or with our mouth, or if we get a blood transfusion from someone infected. The latter is rarely the case today, as many health checks are carried out to prevent it.
  • Through intravenous drug use, needles can be infected if shared.
  • If you have unprotected sex with people with hepatitis C.
  • If the mother suffers from this disease during pregnancy, it can be transmitted to the baby.
  • Through an organ transplant from a donor with hepatitis C.
  • By sharing personal items, such as toothbrushes or razors, with someone with the virus.

It must be borne in mind that many patients with hepatitis C can suffer from it for a long time without it manifesting itself. It is essential to have regular blood tests to check that we are not infected since this disease can lead to liver cancer.

Symptoms of Hepatitis C

Many of the symptoms of this pathology are familiar to those of hepatitis A and B. They can sometimes be confused with the flu since fatigue, nausea, fever, and stomach pain also appear. But there are other symptoms of this condition like:

  • Diarrhea.
  • Darkening of urine.
  • Light-colored droppings.
  • Jaundice: yellowing of eyes and skin.
  • Bad breath.
  • Pictures.
  • Abdominal pain.
  • Cirrhosis this in a case where the liver has become scarred.

Hepatitis C treatment

There are times, depending on the person, when hepatitis C disappears without the need for treatment thanks to our body’s immune response, but at other times, a chronic infection can occur.

The most common treatment is the administration of interferon and ribavirin with weekly injections over 48 weeks. About half of the patients treated with this system are cured, but the treatment sometimes causes adverse reactions. For this reason, in recent years, new antiviral drugs are being developed, called direct antiviral agents (DAAs), with a higher level of efficacy and tolerance than the treatment used up to now, leading to a much faster cure.

It should be borne in mind that hepatitis C and its consequences cause the death of about 500,000 people a year around the world, although 90% of treated patients are cured. But, as in the case of many other diseases, there is still research to improve the lives of hepatitis C sufferers.

Preventing the disease by always having protective sex, avoiding the consumption of drugs, especially intravenous ones, and not sharing personal objects with anyone are the best recommendations to prevent the spread of this virus.

This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Hepatitis C: causes, symptoms and treatment , we recommend that you enter our Digestive System category .

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