What is hypothesis c

A blood test can be carried out to see if you have the infection. GPs, sexual health clinics, genitourinary medicine GUM clinics or drug treatment services all offer testing for hepatitis C.

Early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent or limit any damage to your liver, as well as help ensure the infection is not passed on to other people. Find out more about testing for hepatitis C. Hepatitis C can be treated with medicines that stop the virus multiplying inside the body. These usually need to be taken for several weeks.

Until recently, most people would have taken 2 main medicines called pegylated interferon a weekly injection and ribavirin a capsule or tablet. These new hepatitis C medicines have been found to make treatment more effective, are easier to tolerate, and have shorter treatment courses.

But it's important to be aware that you will not be immune to the infection and should take steps to reduce your risk of becoming infected again. If the infection is left untreated for many years, some people with hepatitis C will develop scarring of the liver cirrhosis. This condition develops following the transmission of the hepatitis C virus HCV. Hepatitis C can be either acute or chronic. If you have symptoms of acute hepatitis C, they generally set in quickly and last only a few weeks.

Chronic hepatitis C symptoms develop over a period of months or years and may not be apparent at first. Still, some people report mild to severe symptoms.

These include:. The symptoms may not show up right away. Some may take anywhere from two to 12 weeks to appear. Acute infections occur within 6 months of coming into contact with the virus. These cases are typically mild, lasting only a few weeks.

However, hepatitis C can become chronic more than half the time and may be lifelong if left untreated. It can lead to long-term health problems , including liver damage and liver cancer. HCV is transmitted through blood-to-blood contact with someone with an infection. It can be passed through:. Prior to , blood transfusions were considered a highly viable method of transmitting the hepatitis C virus. Due to medical advances in blood screening, the likelihood of transmission via this medical process has been significantly reduced.

People who have a high risk for transmission with HCV include those who:. Around 30 percent of people with acute hepatitis C get better within 6 months without treatment, per data published by the WHO. If you develop chronic hepatitis C, it can likely still be cured. The WHO states that antiviral medications can cure over 95 percent of hepatitis C diagnoses. This newer treatment usually takes around 12 to 24 weeks and has few side effects. Not everyone with hepatitis C will need treatment.

For some people, their immune systems may be able to fight the infection well enough to clear the virus from their bodies. Past hepatitis C treatment regimens required weekly injections with many negative side effects. Newer antiviral medications are often successful at treating the virus. They come in pill form and cause few side effects.

There are many medications for hepatitis C. Treatments most often include antivirals, with Riboviria sometimes prescribed if previous treatments were ineffective. Medications called direct-acting antivirals DAAs work to fully remove the hepatitis C virus from your body while helping prevent liver damage.

Brand names of these medications include:. The hepatitis C genotype can affect your treatment options. Your doctor may not have enough evidence just from your symptoms to properly diagnose hepatitis C. Because of this, doctors often call hepatitis C the silent epidemic. The acute symptoms are very similar to other viral infections. Symptoms of acute hepatitis C include:. According to CDC , less than half of people with acute hepatitis C clear the virus from their bodies without treatment and do not develop the chronic condition.

Researchers do not know why this happens in some people and not others. In most cases, chronic hepatitis C does not cause any symptoms or causes general symptoms, such as chronic fatigue or depression. A person may only find out they have the condition during a routine blood test or screening for a blood donation. Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent liver damage. Left untreated, chronic hepatitis C can lead to:.

People contract the virus through blood-to-blood contact with contaminated blood. A speck of blood, invisible to the naked eye, can carry hundreds of hepatitis C virus particles. The virus is not easy to kill. The CDC offers advice on cleaning syringes if it is not possible to use clean and sterile ones.

Although bleach might kill the HCV in syringes, it may not have the same effect on other equipment. Boiling, burning, and using alcohol, peroxide, or other common cleaning fluids to wash equipment may reduce the amount of HCV, but it might not stop a person contracting the infection.

It is extremely dangerous to inject bleach, disinfectant, or other cleaning products, so be sure to rinse the syringe thoroughly. Only ever use bleach to clean equipment if new, sterile syringes and equipment are not available. A person cannot contract the virus from casual contact, breathing, kissing, or sharing food. There is no evidence that mosquito bites can transfer the virus. The CDC report the following risk factors for developing hepatitis C:.

If the person has had hepatitis C for a long time, a doctor may recommend further tests to look for liver damage, measure the severity of any existing damage, and rule out other causes of damage. These tests usually involve blood tests and ultrasound scans. Doctors only use a liver biopsy — which involves taking a small sample of liver tissue — when the other tests do not provide enough information.

Modern treatments can cure hepatitis C in most cases. These treatments involve a combination of antiviral medications taken for 8 to 24 weeks. Direct-acting antiviral medicines DAAs can cure most cases of chronic hepatitis C and acute hepatitis C. These are modern medicines approved in The medications are well-tolerated, with the most common side effects being a headache and fatigue.

These medications work by targeting specific steps in the HCV life cycle to disrupt the reproduction of viral cells. The choice of medication and duration of treatment depends on the genotype of the virus. Genotype 1a is the most prevalent in the U. Before DAAs became available, the treatment for chronic hepatitis C was lengthy and uncomfortable, with less than ideal cure rates. However, new medications can be very costly.

Most government and private health insurance prescription drug plans will help provide some coverage for these medications.