Hepatitis C is a virus which leads to chronic hepatitis, and leads to slowly progressive damage of liver, ultimately resulting in cirrhosis and liver cancer
Route and transmission of virus
Transfusion of contaminated blood products
Sharing of needle by untrained health care workers
Sharing of needle amongst drug abusers
Symptoms
Symptoms depend upon the stage of the disease
Patient may be totally asymptomatic, diagnosed on screening blood tests
Patient with chronic hepatitis may complain of fatigue
Patients with advanced liver disease may complain of ascites (fluid in abdomen), feet swelling, vomiting of blood, change in behavior
Following test are done for diagnosis of Chronic Hepatitis C
LFT
Anti HCV antibody
HCV RNA, quantitative and qualitative
Treatment depends upon stage of liver disease and genotype of virus
Genotype 1 usually requires treatment for 48 weeks with PEG IFN and Ribavarin, Efficacy of treatment is around 50%
Genotype 2 and 3 are easy to treat, treatment response is 70-90%, and the duration of treatment is 24 weeks
Response rate in previously non responders has improved with addition of Telaprevir and Boceprevir to the Peg
Interferon and Ribavarin
Recently trail for Sofosbuvir and Ribavarin had shown that injection free treatment without side effect will be available in near future