Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C

    * Introduction
    * Pathogenesis and causes
    * Signs and symptoms
    * Diagnosis
    * Treatment
Hepatitis C is a viral liver infection hepatitis sometime called non-A, non-B, up to identify the cause in 1989. The discovery and characterization of hepatitis C virus has led to understanding its role in post-transfusion transmitted hepatitis and its tendency to induce persistent infection. HCV is a major cause of acute hepatitis and chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. L Globally, an estimated 170 million people are chronically infected with HCV and 3-4 million are infected de novo in each year. HCV is generally transmitted through direct contact with infected human blood. Major cause is the use of transfusions' with unscreened blood, reuse of needles and syringes that have not been properly sterilized. There is still no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C and its treatment is too expensive for many developing countries. HCV is one of the viruses (A, B, C, D, G, E), which infects the liver. It is an envelope virus, RNA, from the family Flaviviridae, whose hosts are chimps and humans, the only species that develops an infection. An important feature is the increased tendency of the virus genome or mutations. Incubation lasts 15-150 days, the most encountered symptoms of acute infection are fatigue and jaundice, however most cases, even those who develop chronic infection may be asymptomatic. Approximately 80% of people infected for the first time progresses to chronicity. Cirrhosis develops in 10-20% of bolonavi and hepatocellular cancer in 1-5% intro period of 20-30 years. Most patients suffering from liver cancer, but not infection with HBV, HCV infection present. The mechanism by which HCV leads to cancer is not known yet. Infection may exacerbate liver and other comorbidities. Liver cancer progresses faster in people, especially alcohol. Diagnostic tests are of great importance for the discovery of infected persons and prevent virus transmission by blood donors, the ELISA test is used, can detect 95% of chronic patients, but only 50-70% of those with acute infection. Treatment with interferon alone or in combination with ribavirin may be effective in patients with chronic infection, but the cost is very high. Interferon, unique product only yield results in 10-20% of patients, combined with ribavirin in 30-50% of them. Ribavirin does not appear to be uniquely effective. There is no vaccine to prevent HCV infection, the development was being hampered by frequent mutations suffered by the virus genome. It is not known if the immune system may not eliminate the virus. However, some studies have shown this anti-HCV in circulation Ac.