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How Do People Contract Hepatitis C

What Are The Symptoms Of Hepatitis C

How is Hepatitis C spread? — Mayo Clinic

During the acute phase most persons have no symptoms or might experience a mild illness. Symptoms of acute HCV infection, when present, may include:

  • Jaundice
  • Dark-colored urine, light-colored stools
  • Diarrhea
  • Fever

During the chronic phase hepatitis C usually progresses silently, with no symptoms at all during the first 10-20 years. Signs of severe liver scarring may include:

  • Ascites
  • Star-shaped vein pattern developing on the swollen belly
  • Jaundice
  • Itching
  • Easy bruising and bleeding

Because symptoms of hepatitis C are usually absent, persons with risk for HCV infection should be tested. The blood test for hepatitis C infection is called the hepatitis C antibody test. People who have hepatitis C infection will show positive antibodies on this test. In many cases, it is necessary to confirm a positive hepatitis C antibody test with a more specific test, such as a test for HCV virus RNA.

If you think you have hepatitis C or have risk for hepatitis C, you should contact your doctor. The Communicable Disease Control Unit may be able to help answer your questions.

Testing Treating And Reducing Risk Of Hepatitis

If you think youre at risk for hepatitis infection, talk to your healthcare provider about getting tested. A blood test is usually done to see if you have been exposed to the virus. Women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant should get tested for hepatitis.

Get treated for hepatitis infection

There are treatments for hepatitis. Treating long-lasting hepatitis B or C infection can reduce the amount of the virus in a person, which may lower the risk of liver cancer.

What Medications Cure Hepatitis C Infection

Interferons, for example, Roferon-A and Infergen, and pegylated interferons such as Peg-IntronT, Pegasys, were mainstays of treatment for years. Interferons produced sustained viral response of up to 15%. Later, peglatedll forms produced SVR of 50%-80%. These drugs were injected, had many adverse effects, required frequent monitoring, and were often combined with oral ribavirin, which caused anemia. Treatment durations ranged up to 48 weeks.

Direct-acting anti-viral agents are antiviral drugs that act directly on hepatitis C multiplication.

Recommended Reading: How Can Hepatitis Be Transmitted

Who Is More Likely To Get Hepatitis C

People more likely to get hepatitis C are those who

  • have injected drugs
  • had a blood transfusion or organ transplant before July 1992
  • have hemophilia and received clotting factor before 1987
  • have been on kidney dialysis
  • have been in contact with blood or infected needles at work
  • have had tattoos or body piercings
  • have worked or lived in a prison
  • were born to a mother with hepatitis C
  • are infected with HIV
  • have had more than one sex partner in the last 6 months or have a history of sexually transmitted disease
  • are men who have or had sex with men

In the United States, injecting drugs is the most common way that people get hepatitis C.13

Why Getting Tested Is Important

How long does hepatitis C live outside the body?

A blood test is one of the only ways to confirm a diagnosis of hepatitis C. Additionally, hepatitis C often has no visible symptoms for many years.

Because of this, its important to be tested if you believe youve been exposed to the virus. Getting a timely diagnosis can help ensure you receive treatment before permanent liver damage occurs.

Read Also: Hepatitis C Is It Curable

How Do You Contract Hepatitis A

May 30, 2019

When you travel, it is always important to consider all health risks.

One risk you are taking, especially in developing countries, is contracting hepatitis A .

Hepatitis A is a viral liver disease that can cause mild to severe illness. But, as is the case with most dangerous diseases, its quite easy to unknowingly spread and contract HAV.

The virus is most commonly transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food and water. Usually that comes in the form of infected fecal matter that somehow ends up in your food or drink. Any direct contact with an infectious person can also spread hepatitis A.

Reactive Or Positive Hepatitis C Antibody Test

  • A reactive or positive antibody test means that Hepatitis C antibodies were found in the blood and a person has been infected with the Hepatitis C virus at some point in time.
  • Once people have been infected, they will always have antibodies in their blood. This is true even if they have cleared the Hepatitis C virus.
  • A reactive antibody test does not necessarily mean that you have Hepatitis C. A person will need an additional, follow-up test.

Persons for Whom HCV Testing Is Recommended

  • Adults born from 1945 through 1965 should be tested once
  • Those who:
  • Ever injected drugs, including those who injected once or a few times many years ago
  • Have certain medical conditions, including persons:
  • who received clotting factor concentrates produced before 1987
  • who were ever on long-term hemodialysis
  • with persistently abnormal alanine aminotransferase levels
  • who have HIV infection
  • Were prior recipients of transfusions or organ transplants, including persons who:
  • were notified that they received blood from a donor who later tested positive for HCV infection
  • received a transfusion of blood, blood components, or an organ transplant before July 1992
  • HCV- testing based on a recognized exposure is recommended for:
  • Healthcare, emergency medical, and public safety workers after needle sticks, sharps, or mucosal exposures to HCV-positive blood
  • Children born to HCV-positive women
  • Also Check: What Kind Of Disease Is Hepatitis C

    How Do You Get Hepatitis B

    The virus that causes hepatitis B lives in blood, semen, and other fluids in your body. You usually get it by having sex with someone who’s infected.

    You also can get it if you:

    • Have direct contact with infected blood or the body fluids of someone who’s got the disease, for instance by using the same razor or toothbrush as someone who has hepatitis B, or touching the open sores of somebody who’s infected.
    • If you’re pregnant and you’ve got hepatitis B, you could give the disease to your unborn child. If you deliver a baby who’s got it, they need to get treatment in the first 12 hours after birth.

    What Is Chronic Hepatitis C

    How Does Hepatitis C Hurt Your Liver? | WebMD

    Doctors refer to hepatitis C infections as either acute or chronic:

    • An acute HCV infection is a short-term illness that clears within 6 months of when a person is exposed to the virus.
    • A person who still has HCV after 6 months is said to have a chronic hepatitis C infection. This is a long-term illness, meaning the virus stays in the body and can cause lifelong illness. An estimated 3.2 million people in the U.S. have chronic HCV.

    Also Check: Glomerulonephritis Due To Infectious Hepatitis

    Contaminated Needles And Infected Blood

    You can get hepatitis C from sharing contaminated needles, syringes and other injecting equipment during recreational drug use. Banknotes and straws used for snorting may also pass the virus on.

    Being exposed to unsterilised tattoo and body piercing equipment can also pass hepatitis C on. Occasionally, you can get it from sharing a towel, razor blades or a toothbrush if there is infected blood on them.

    Hepatitis C infection is also passed on in healthcare settings, from needle stick injuries or from medical and dental equipment that has not been properly sterilised. In countries where blood products are not routinely screened, you can also get hepatitis C by receiving a transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products.

    You can prevent hepatitis C by:

    • never sharing needles and syringes or other items that may be contaminated with infected blood
    • only having tattoos, body piercings or acupuncture in a professional setting, where new, sterile needles are used
    • following the standard infection control precautions, if youre working in a healthcare setting.

    Complications Of Hepatitis C

    If the infection is left untreated for many years, some people with hepatitis C will develop scarring of the liver .

    Over time, this can cause the liver to stop working properly.

    In severe cases, life-threatening problems, such as liver failure, where the liver loses most or all of its functions, or liver cancer, can eventually develop.

    Treating hepatitis C as early as possible can help reduce the risk of these problems happening.

    Read Also: Hepatitis A Vaccine For Adults

    What Are The Different Types Of Hepatitis C

    Hepatitis C can be acute or chronic. How long you experience symptoms will depend on the type you have.

    Acute hepatitis C involves more short-term symptoms that typically last 6 months or less but acute hepatitis often leads to chronic hepatitis. When hepatitis C lasts longer than 6 months, its considered chronic.

    Without treatment, you may have chronic hepatitis your whole life, since your body often cant get rid of the virus easily. Some people do get better without treatment, although treatment can go a long way toward improving the outlook.

    Hepatitis C wont necessarily become chronic.

    As a matter of fact, for anywhere from 15 to 45 percent of people with acute hepatitis C, the virus will clear up without treatment. In other words, if you dont have any symptoms, hepatitis C could improve on its own before you ever know you have it.

    However, if your body cant get rid of the hepatitis C virus, the infection wont go away. Instead, it will become chronic, or long-term.

    Experts arent sure why some people develop the chronic form of the disease and others dont. But more than half of all people with the hepatitis C virus will eventually develop the chronic form, according to the

    Since hepatitis C symptoms can resemble those of other health conditions, your symptoms alone if you have any may not make it clear that you have hepatitis C.

    A doctor or other healthcare professional may recommend getting tested if you:

    • daclatasvir

    Whos At Risk For Hepatitis C

    How long does hepatitis C live outside the body?

    You might be more likely to get it if you:

    • Inject or have injected street drugs
    • Were born between 1945 and 1965
    • Got clotting factor concentrates made before 1987
    • Received a blood transfusion or solid organ transplants before July 1992
    • Got blood or organs from a donor who tested positive for hepatitis C
    • Are on dialysis
    • Get a body piercing or tattoo with nonsterile instruments

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    The Types Of Viral Hepatitis

    There are five main types of viral hepatitis known as hepatitis A , hepatitis B , hepatitis C , hepatitis D , and hepatitis E . That said, there have been cases of acute hepatitis that could not be attributed to one of these five types of hepatitis viruses, alcohol, drugs, or autoimmune disease, which lead researchers to try to find another cause.

    Though the etiology of these viruses have not yet been fully established, researchers have identified three other types of viral hepatitis , which they have named hepatitis F , hepatitis G , and transfusions transmitted virus . As relatively new diseases and viral discoveries, information about them and how they work is relatively scarce. We do know, however, that cases of TTV have only been associated with hepatitis in people who have had a blood transfusion.

    How Did My Child Get Hepatitis C

    HCV spreads through blood. Infection can happen when blood containing the virus enters a healthy persons body. In many cases, how a person got infected is not known for sure. HCV can be passed in the following ways:

    • From mother to baby during birth.

    • Through contact with infected blood, such as by touching an open cut or scrape. HCV can also spread if you use an item that has even a tiny amount of an infected persons blood on it. This includes personal care items , and tattoo or drug needles.

    • Through infected blood products during a transfusion. Careful screening of donated blood makes this type of transmission very rare in the United States.

    • During dialysis .

    • Through unprotected sex with an infected person.

    Also Check: If You Have Hepatitis B Do You Have Hiv

    How To Prevent Hepatitis B

    Hepatitis B is a liver infection caused by a virus . It can be serious and theres no cure, but the good news is its easy to prevent. You can protect yourself by getting the hepatitis B vaccine and having safer sex. If you have oral, anal, and vaginal sex, use condoms and dental dams to help stop the spread of hepatitis B and other STDs.

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    What to know about Hepatitis C

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    How Do You Treat Hepatitis C

    People with acute infection do not always need treatment, because their immune system may clear hepatitis C on its own. If you test positive during the acute stage, your doctor may ask you to come back after a few months to re-test and to see if you need any treatment.

    If people develop chronic infection, they will need treatment to help clear the virus. Where available, treatment with drugs called direct-acting antivirals can cure hepatitis in most cases. These are usually taken for 8-12 weeks. Your doctor will also check your liver for any damage.

    If youve had hepatitis C in the past, youre not immune to future infections which means you can get it again. You can also still get other types of hepatitis, and having hepatitis C together with another type is more serious.

    If youve already had hepatitis C, its advisable to have the vaccination against hepatitis A and B to protect your liver from further damage.

    Whether you have symptoms or not, dont have sex until your healthcare professional says you can.

    How Is Hepatitis C Treated

    Significant progress has been made in treating and even curing hepatitis C. Older hepatitis C treatments usually required weekly injections, had serious side effects, and often were not effective.

    New and better oral medicines now can cure HCV for many people within 3 months. The new medicines were very expensive at first, but their prices have come down, a trend that health experts hope will continue as the incidence of HCV rises and increased screening brings more cases to light.

    These medicines successfully cure about 90% of HCV patients. A new oral medicine under development looks promising for the 10% who don’t respond to the standard treatment. This new antiviral combination pill is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration .

    Read Also: What Happens To Your Body When You Have Hepatitis C

    How Does Hepatitis C Spread

    Hepatitis C is spread only through exposure to an infected person’s blood.

    High-risk activities include:

    • Sharing drug use equipment. Anything involved with injecting street drugs, from syringes, to needles, to tourniquets, can have small amounts of blood on it that can transmit hepatitis C. Pipes and straws to smoke or snort drugs can have blood on them from cracked lips or nosebleeds. Get into a treatment program if you can. At the very least, don’t share needles or equipment with anyone else.
    • Sharing tattoo or piercing tools. Nonsterile items and ink can spread contaminated blood.
    • Blood transfusions in countries that donât screen blood for hepatitis C.
    • Nonsterile medical equipment. Tools that arenât cleaned properly between use can spread the virus.
    • Blood or cutting rituals. Sharing the tools or exchanging blood can transmit hepatitis C.

    Medium-risk activities include:

    Who Is Most At Risk Of Contracting Hepatitis C

    How To Deal with Hep C Stigma

    You have a high risk of contracting hepatitis C if you:

    • use or have used injection drugs even if it was just once or many years ago
    • have received blood or blood products or an organ transplant before July 1990 in Canada
    • have been in jail or
    • have been injected or scratched during vaccination, surgery, blood transfusion or a religious/ceremonial ritual in regions where hepatitis C is common.

    You have a high moderate risk of contracting hepatitis C if you:

    • have tattoos or body piercing
    • have multiple sexual partners
    • have a sexually transmitted infection , including HIV or lymphogranuloma venereum
    • have experienced traumatic sex or rough sex or have used sex toys or fisting that can tear body tissue
    • have vaginal sex during menstruation
    • have received a kidney treatment
    • have received an accidental injury from a needle or syringe
    • have another infectious disease
    • were born to a hepatitis C infected mother or
    • have a sexual partner infected with hepatitis C.

    Hepatitis C is NOT passed from person to person by:

    • coughing, sneezing
    • breastfeeding unless your nipples are cracked and bleeding or
    • oral sex, unless blood is present.

    Read Also: What Is The Difference Between Hepatitis B And C

    What Are The Complications Of Undiagnosed Hepatitis C

    • Hepatitis C is known to be associated with two skin conditions, lichen planus and porphyria cutanea tarda.
    • Diabetes, heart disease, and arterial blockage are more common among patients with chronic hepatitis C infection than in the general population. It may be that liver damage and chronic inflammation caused by hepatitis C may affect the levels of blood fats and blood sugar.
    • Low platelet counts may occur as a result of the destruction of platelets by antibodies.

    Hepatitis C And Health

    How can health-care personnel avoid exposure to HCV?

    Avoiding occupational exposure to blood is the primary way to prevent transmission of bloodborne illnesses among health-care personnel. To promote blood safety in the workplace, health-care personnel should consult infectious-disease control guidance from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and from CDC. Depending on the medical procedure involved, Standard Precautions may include the appropriate use of personal protective equipment .

    What is the risk of acquiring hepatitis C after being accidentally exposed to HCV-contaminated blood or body fluids in the workplace?

    Although sharps injuries have decreased in recent decades due to improved prevention measures, they continue to occur, placing health-care personnel at risk for several bloodborne pathogens like hepatitis C. A recent analysis of several studies revealed an overall 0.2% risk for infection among those exposed to HCV-antibody-positive blood through needlestick or sharps injuries . Updated guidelines for management and treatment of hepatitis Cexternal icon are available to provide guidance for health-care personnel who become infected via exposure to contaminated blood at the workplace.

    Other than needlesticks, do other exposures place health-care personnel at risk for hepatitis C?

    Should HCV-infected health-care personnel be restricted in their work?

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