Sorry if it seems like I keep banging on about it... Hepatitis C (Hep C) Blog-Post
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Diary Post
Hep C that is, but as you can imagine, it's certainly my biggest cause for concern you understand.
Hep C that is, but as you can imagine, it's certainly my biggest cause for concern you understand.
And I've certainly had lots going on recently!
Let me give you a bit of background on what Hep C is because,if your anything like me, up until I was diagnosed with it, I had absolutely no idea what it was.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that predominantly infects the cells of the liver. This can cause inflammation of and sometimes significant damage to the liver and affect its ability to perform its many, varied and essential functions. Although it has always been regarded as a liver disease (hepatitis means inflammation of the liver), recent research has shown that hepatitis C affects a number of other areas of the body including the digestive system, the lymphatic system, the immune system and the brain.
Hepatitis C was discovered in the 1980s when it became apparent that there was a new virus (not hepatitis A or B) causing liver damage. It was known as non-A non-B hepatitis until it was properly identified in 1989. A screening process was developed in 1991 that made it possible to detect it in blood samples. It is thus a relatively newly identified disease and there are still many aspects of it that are little or poorly understood.
There are an estimated 200 million people worldwide infected with hepatitis C but the level of infection, known as prevalence, varies widely from country to country. In some countries, such as Egypt it is over 10%; in the US it is believed to be nearly 2% and in northern Europe around 1%. Transmission is by contact with infected blood.
Hepatitis C is an RNA virus. RNA viruses mutate much more than DNA viruses. This ability to change makes it harder for the bodys immune system to locate and destroy them. In hepatitis C there are 7 major variations of the virus, known as genotypes and labelled 1 to 7. Different genotypes predominate in different parts of the world. One genotype cannot change into another but it is possible, although rare, to be infected with more than one genotype at the same time.
A hepatitis C infection can be categorised into two stages, firstly an acute infection (following initial infection) and secondly a chronic infection. The acute stage refers to the first 6 months of infection and does not necessarily mean there are any noticeable symptoms. Approximately 20% of those infected with hepatitis C will naturally clear the virus from their body and experience no long-term affects from the infection. However, for the remaining 80% a chronic (long-term) infection will develop.
The course of a chronic hepatitis C infection is extremely varied and unpredictable. Many people experience very few symptoms for long periods, sometimes decades. Others can be very symptomatic from the beginning. Equally, some people will progress to develop fibrosis and cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, liver cancer or end stage liver disease, which may ultimately require a liver transplant, while others experience very little liver damage even after many years. Confusingly there seems to be no clear relationship between the degree of liver damage and the experience of symptoms.
Because of the common absence of symptoms, many people are unaware that they have a hepatitis C infection until some time after infection. Another reason so many people with hepatitis C remain undiagnosed is that many of the symptoms are subjective, at least in severity, and easy to put down to something else. So, for example, depression, fatigue, skin problems, insomnia, pain and digestive disorders could all have other causes. For these reasons hepatitis C is often referred to as the silent epidemic.
Drug treatment to eradicate the virus has advanced greatly in the last few years with success rates now around 50% for genotype 1 and 80% for genotypes 2 and 3. However, the treatment can have significant side effects and is not suitable for everyone. A vaccine remains a long way off.
All information supplied by:
Hepatitis C was discovered in the 1980s when it became apparent that there was a new virus (not hepatitis A or B) causing liver damage. It was known as non-A non-B hepatitis until it was properly identified in 1989. A screening process was developed in 1991 that made it possible to detect it in blood samples. It is thus a relatively newly identified disease and there are still many aspects of it that are little or poorly understood.
There are an estimated 200 million people worldwide infected with hepatitis C but the level of infection, known as prevalence, varies widely from country to country. In some countries, such as Egypt it is over 10%; in the US it is believed to be nearly 2% and in northern Europe around 1%. Transmission is by contact with infected blood.
Hepatitis C is an RNA virus. RNA viruses mutate much more than DNA viruses. This ability to change makes it harder for the bodys immune system to locate and destroy them. In hepatitis C there are 7 major variations of the virus, known as genotypes and labelled 1 to 7. Different genotypes predominate in different parts of the world. One genotype cannot change into another but it is possible, although rare, to be infected with more than one genotype at the same time.
A hepatitis C infection can be categorised into two stages, firstly an acute infection (following initial infection) and secondly a chronic infection. The acute stage refers to the first 6 months of infection and does not necessarily mean there are any noticeable symptoms. Approximately 20% of those infected with hepatitis C will naturally clear the virus from their body and experience no long-term affects from the infection. However, for the remaining 80% a chronic (long-term) infection will develop.
The course of a chronic hepatitis C infection is extremely varied and unpredictable. Many people experience very few symptoms for long periods, sometimes decades. Others can be very symptomatic from the beginning. Equally, some people will progress to develop fibrosis and cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, liver cancer or end stage liver disease, which may ultimately require a liver transplant, while others experience very little liver damage even after many years. Confusingly there seems to be no clear relationship between the degree of liver damage and the experience of symptoms.
Because of the common absence of symptoms, many people are unaware that they have a hepatitis C infection until some time after infection. Another reason so many people with hepatitis C remain undiagnosed is that many of the symptoms are subjective, at least in severity, and easy to put down to something else. So, for example, depression, fatigue, skin problems, insomnia, pain and digestive disorders could all have other causes. For these reasons hepatitis C is often referred to as the silent epidemic.
Drug treatment to eradicate the virus has advanced greatly in the last few years with success rates now around 50% for genotype 1 and 80% for genotypes 2 and 3. However, the treatment can have significant side effects and is not suitable for everyone. A vaccine remains a long way off.
All information supplied by:
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