Hepatitis C is a viral infection of the liver which is usually spread through blood-to-blood contact.
Hepatitis C can cause inflammation (swelling) and fibrosis (scarring) of the liver tissue, and sometimes significant liver damage. It may subsequently lead to cancer of the liver.
Hepatitis C can be cured with treatment. The treatment is very straightforward and consists of a short course of tablets. The current treatments are safe and very effective and most people do not feel any side effects. This is different to the old treatments which took longer to work and had more side effects.
There’s no vaccine for hepatitis C, but there are ways to reduce your risk of becoming infected.
These include:
- not sharing any drug-injecting equipment with other people, including needles and other equipment, such as syringes, spoons and filters;
- not sharing razors or toothbrushes that might be contaminated with blood.
-
Symptoms
Most people with hepatitis C won’t have any symptoms until there has been significant liver damage.
This means that many people infected with hepatitis C are completely unaware of it.
When symptoms do occur, they can be mistaken for another condition.
Symptoms can include:
- Flu-like symptoms
- Fatigue
- Appetite loss
- Abdominal ache
The only way to know for certain if these symptoms are caused by hepatitis C is to get tested.
-
Testing
Hepatitis C can be diagnosed by a blood test. This is a simple procedure which can be carried out by your GP, in your local clinic or hospital or by online testing.