Hepatitis C (Hep C) is a chronic inflammation of the liver caused by Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), it infects 170 million individuals worldwide, Hep c was one of the fatal diseases in the world, a lot of people suffered in the past from this untreatable disease, it is a long term disease which it’s first manifestation appears after 20-30 years after the infection, so what is Hep C causes? How it is transmitted? How you can discover it? what is the surest investigation and is there curative treatment?
First let us tell you about the causes, Hep C is present primarily in the blood and spread to the other body fluids of the infected person, its passed through the sharing of used needle, other equipment such as pipes, spoons, filters, etc. also by unprotected sex with low risk and the risk is higher if there’s genital ulcer.
The surest mode of transmission is through organ transplantation, when the donated organ is received from a carrier.
How can you discover HCV?
HCV is associated with some manifestation such as upper right abdominal pain, dark urine, jaundice (yellow colour of eyes and skin), muscle waste and fatigue but those are not specific symptoms of HCV, those can be presented in several diseases, but what if you have those symptoms, then we recommend you to ask for medical help.
You can easily do the test of HCV in your home by using hepatitis antibodies test, brick your finger with a steralized needle, gently squeeze your finger and put a drop of your blood on the test strep, if you find two red lines then you maybe HCV infected person or you previously has the disease and you should ask for medical help, if there is one line then you are fine, this test is used to decline presence if HCV but not to approve it.
Nowadays Hep C treatment becomes easy as there are Antiviral drugs, vaccines and liver transplantation surgeries.
Dr/ Ahmed and Rasha
