What is Hep C?

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that infects the cells of the liver.    

What are the effects of Hep C infection?

Hepatitis C was discovered in the 1980s when was known as non-A non-B hepatitis.  It can cause inflammation of and sometimes significant damage to the liver and affect its ability to perform its many, varied and essential functions. Hep C is 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.

How many people are infected?

There are an estimated 130-170 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.

How does Hep C infection progress?

A hepatitis C infection is usually categorised into two stages   Firstly as an acute infection (following initial infection) and secondly a chronic infection. Often 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

Hepatitis C infection and its progress is extremely varied and unpredictable. Although many people experience very few symptoms for long periods, sometimes decades. Others can be very symptomatic from the beginning. 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.

In the 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.  That is why early and accurate diagnosis is essential for treatment and recovery.

Why test?

Early diagnosis is essential to enable early treatment.

How reliable is the test?

The Hep C point of care rapid test is very reliable and is CE marked for professional use