How You Could Contract Hepatitis C And What You Should Do Immediately

Hepatitis C is an infection of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus. It affects approximately 3.5 million people in the United States alone, and many people are unaware of its symptoms. Although there are many forms of the hepatitis C virus, type one is the most common form in the United States. Hepatitis C is contracted by coming in contact with the blood or bodily fluid of someone who has the disease. Long term effects may include liver cancer. Here is what to do when symptoms present themselves.

10. Types Of Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C, or hep C, is a contagious viral infection that causes inflammation of the liver. The condition ranges in severity and can last for a few weeks, or it can turn into a chronic illness that attacks the liver. Acute hepatitis C is a short-term infection that develops within six months of exposure to an infected person. Chronic hepatitis C is a long-term illness that remains inside a person’s body and can result in liver damage, cancer, and cirrhosis (scarring of the liver tissue).

9. How Common Is it?

There were an estimated thirty thousand five hundred cases of acute hepatitis C viral infections reported in the United States in 2014. Chronic hepatitis C affects an estimated 2.7 to 3.9 million people in the United States alone. Of all acute hepatitis C cases, up to as many as eighty-five percent will develop a chronic infection that increases the risk of frequent infections, liver damage, cirrhosis of the liver and even liver cancer.