What is Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C

What is hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C is an infection that can harm your liver. It is caused by a virus that is carried in blood. You can catch it if blood from an infected person gets into your body. You may not know you have hepatitis C because there often aren't any symptoms.

Some people with hepatitis C stay healthy all their life. But some people's

liver
Your liver is a large organ that sits on the right side of your body, just below your rib cage. It does several important things, including processing and storing nutrients from food, and breaking down chemicals, such as alcohol.

liver gets badly damaged by the infection. Unfortunately, there isn't any way to tell what will happen to you. But there are treatments that may get rid of the

viruses
Viruses are microbes (tiny organisms) that need the cells of humans or other animals to exist. They use the machinery of cells to reproduce. Then they spread to other cells in the body.

virus. Getting rid of the virus makes it less likely that you will get liver damage.

Key points for people with hepatitis C

You can become

infection
You get an infection when viruses, bacteria, fungi or other tiny organisms get into your body. These bugs are so tiny that you can't see them without a microscope. For example, an infection in your airways causes the common cold. And an infection in your skin can cause rashes such as athlete's foot.

infected by the hepatitis C virus if blood from a person with hepatitis C gets into your body.

Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Frequently asked questions about hepatitis C.
Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/faq.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

¹
You are most likely to get hepatitis C if you share needles to inject illegal drugs, such as heroin.

Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Viral hepatitis C: fact sheet.
Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/fact.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

²

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

³ But you can get it in other ways, too.
The only way to find out for sure if you are infected is to have a blood test. For more information, see Should I be tested for hepatitis C?
You may not get any symptoms from hepatitis C. But if the virus stays in your body for a long time, you may get serious liver damage.

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

³
You can take treatments that may get rid of the virus. But the treatments don't work for everyone, and they have unpleasant side effects.
If you have hepatitis C, you can do some things that make it more likely you'll stay well, such as drinking less alcohol and eating healthy foods.

What does my liver do?

When finding out what can happen when you get hepatitis C, it helps to learn a bit about what your liver does. Then you will understand the problems you can get if your liver is damaged.

Your liver is just under your ribs, on the right side of your body. It weighs about 4 pounds. That makes it one of the biggest organs in your body.

Source:
Gray H.
The liver.
In: Anatomy of the human body. Available at http://www.bartleby.com/107/250.html (accessed on25 March 2009).

⁴

The liver is one of the biggest organs in your body.

Your liver does more than 500 different jobs in your body. Some of the things your liver does are listed below.

Source:
Gray H.
The liver.
In: Anatomy of the human body. Available at http://www.bartleby.com/107/250.html (accessed on25 March 2009).

⁴

It turns your food into a substance (called glucose) that your muscles can use for energy.
It breaks down harmful substances and wastes in your body, including alcohol and many medications.
It fights infections.
It makes many of the chemicals in your body; for example, ones that help your blood clot and ones that help your wounds to heal.

If you have had liver damage for only a short time, you may feel fine. You can get by with less than half of your liver working. So, it may take many years before you get any symptoms of liver damage. Also, your liver can get better if the damage lasts only a short while. But if the damage goes on for a long time (many months or years), it can stop your liver from working properly.

What happens in hepatitis C?

The virus that causes hepatitis C is carried in human blood. You can catch it if blood from someone with the virus gets into your body and then into your bloodstream. This could be just a tiny bit of blood. You might not even be able to see it.

When the hepatitis C virus gets to your liver, it causes

inflammation
If your skin or some other part of your body becomes red, swollen, hot or sore, we say it is inflamed. It means that your body is trying to protect you from germs, from something in your body tissues that can hurt you (like a thorn or sliver), or from things that cause allergies (allergens). Inflammation is part of the way the body heals an infection or injury.

inflammation. You might feel sick for a while. But you might not notice any symptoms at all.

Source:
National Institutes of Health.
NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.
June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

⁵ If you have recently been infected with the hepatitis C virus, your body may fight off the virus naturally, without any treatment. This happens in about 2 in 10 people.

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

³ But usually the virus stays in your body.

If you have had the infection for more than six months, doctors say you have chronic hepatitis C. Chronic means an illness that is long term. Eventually (usually after many years), having chronic hepatitis C may cause scarring in your liver and stop your liver from working properly.

⁵

If your liver isn't working properly, all the jobs that it does are affected. So, you may not have enough energy. You may get more infections than normal. And wastes may build up in your body. These things can put your life in danger.

There are six types of hepatitis C virus, which all have different

genes
Your genes are the parts of your cells that contain instructions for how your body works. Genes are housed on chromosomes, structures that sit in the nucleus at the middle of each of your cells. You have 23 pairs of chromosomes in your normal cells, each of which has thousands of genes. You get one set of chromosomes, and all of the genes that are on them, from each of your parents.

genes. Doctors call the types genotypes. They are numbered 1 to 6. It is important to know which type you have. That's because the type of hepatitis C virus you have affects the chance that treatment will work for you.

Almost all people in the United States who have hepatitis C have genotype 1, genotype 2 or genotype 3. You are almost twice as likely to get rid of the hepatitis C virus with treatment if you have genotype 2 or genotype 3 than if you have genotype 1.

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

Source:
Ward RP, Kugelmas M.
Using pegylated interferon and ribavirin to treat patients with chronic hepatitis C.
American Family Physician. 2005; 72: 655-662.

⁶

Why me?

It can be a shock to find out that you have hepatitis C. You may wonder how you caught the virus. We've listed some of the ways this can happen below. But some people never find out how it happened.

There are two main ways that people catch the hepatitis C virus.

Most people who get hepatitis C are infected by sharing needles to inject illegal drugs.

Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Viral hepatitis C: fact sheet.
Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/fact.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

²

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

³
Before 1992, some people were accidentally given

blood transfusion
If you've lost too much blood from your body, you may need a blood transfusion to replace it. People with diseases of their blood, like sickle cell anemia, sometimes need blood transfusions to replace blood that doesn't work right.

transfusions of blood infected with hepatitis C.

Source:
National Institutes of Health.
NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.
June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

⁵ Since then, the government has used new ways to check the blood that's used for transfusions. So, your chance of being infected with hepatitis C from a blood transfusion is now tiny.

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

³

Source:
National Institutes of Health.
NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.
June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

⁵

There are some other ways you can catch the hepatitis C virus. But these are less common.

Some people were accidentally given products made from blood that was infected before 1992. For example, they had

Hemophilia
People with hemophilia have something missing from their blood, which stops their blood clotting properly. Hemophilia is a hereditary disease, which means you have it because of the genes you got from your parents.

hemophilia and to treat it were given products that help blood clot. (If you have hemophilia, your blood doesn't clot properly.) But strict checks have been in place since then.

Source:
National Institutes of Health.
NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.
June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

⁵ So, your chance of getting infected this way is now tiny.

Source:
Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.
The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.
Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

³

Source:
National Institutes of Health.
NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.
June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

⁵
Sometimes health care workers such as doctors and nurses get injured by needles. For example, this could happen when giving shots to patients. If you scratch yourself with a needle that has been used to treat someone with hepatitis C, you can catch the virus.

Source:
National Institutes of Health.
NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.
June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

⁵
Some babies are born with hepatitis C because their mothers have the virus.

There's also a small chance that you can get hepatitis C if you have sex and you don't use a condom (unprotected sex). Doctors aren't sure if the virus is passed on in semen or just in blood. But you are at risk if:

⁵

You have unprotected sex with many different people
You regularly have unprotected sex with someone who has hepatitis C.

You can't catch hepatitis by kissing, cuddling or holding hands. And you can't get it by using household items such as plates or knives and forks that are also used by someone who has the virus.

⁵

If you have hepatitis C, there are things you can do to cut down the risk of passing the virus on to other people. For more information, see Cutting the risk of passing on hepatitis C.

Sources for the information on this page:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Frequently asked questions about hepatitis C.Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/faq.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Viral hepatitis C: fact sheet.Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/fact.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

Mohsen AH, Trent HCV Study Group.The epidemiology of hepatitis C in a UK health regional population of 5.12 million.Gut. 2001; 48; 707-713.

Gray H.The liver.In: Anatomy of the human body. Available at http://www.bartleby.com/107/250.html (accessed on25 March 2009).

National Institutes of Health.NIH consensus conference statement: management of hepatitis C 2002.June 2002. Available at http://consensus.nih.gov/2002/2002HepatitisC2002116html.htm (accessed on 25 March 2009).

Ward RP, Kugelmas M.Using pegylated interferon and ribavirin to treat patients with chronic hepatitis C.American Family Physician. 2005; 72: 655-662.

This information was last updated on Apr 09, 2009

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