Hepatitis C

            
             Hepatitis C (HCV) is a pathogen that destroys the liver infecting nearly 4 to 8 million people making it one of the top blood borne pathogens. It is the primary cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer killing around 10,000 or more people a year. HCV is also the leading factor in patients who require liver transplant. 80% of those who contract HCV will go on to develop chronic infection and 20% of these 80% will develop cirrhosis, liver cancer, or even liver failure. Alas a slim 20% of those infected will eliminate the virus from their body on their own depending on the virus strand the contracted.
             The liver is very important to the body because it filters out toxins, maintaining blood sugar to a normal lever, processing certain proteins and producing bile.
             Patients can get the virus from using blood transfusions (prior to 1990), shared needles, and unprotected sex. . Anything that assists the transfer of HCV infected blood from one person to another can be a vector. Someone with HCV will have highly contagious blood and sharing blood related things is generally not recommended.
             The symptoms of the virus are not nearly as obvious as any other virus. This is why it is the "'silent killer"". This is because it destroys liver cells with practically no notice and can so for decades. Symptoms of this virus include fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, joint pain, nausea, and itching.
             To test if you have the virus, doctors would look at family history and give a blood test. It is detected if liver enzymes are present in your body which are only produced when the liver is damaged. Additional tests can also tell what strain of virus you got the strain will say how serious the type of virus you got. .
             Ribavirin is a helpful role that plays a vital role in helping HCV patients. Though having it work, it only lasts for a limited period of time. Certain combination drugs will be associated with HCV only if there is liver damage however.