Chronic hepatitis C is a long-lasting liver infection caused by the hepatitis C virus. It starts as acute hepatitis that begins within the first six months of being exposed to the hepatitis C virus.
As many as 85% of the people who contract hepatitis C will develop long-lasting chronic Hepatitis C.
How do you get hepatitis C?
The most common way to contract hepatitis C is through the blood of somebody who already has hepatitis C. When the blood of someone who has hepatitis C gets into your bloodstream, you have a strong likelihood of getting the disease as well. The most common way that this happens is through sharing needles (when using drugs), or accidentally getting stuck with a needle working at a hospital or doctor’s office.
Another way of contracting hepatitis C is being born to a mother who has hepatitis C. Babies born to a mother with hepatitis C have a 6% risk of getting hepatitis C as well.
You can also get hepatitis C by having sex with someone who has the virus. The chances of getting hepatitis C from sex increases if you have a sexually transmitted disease, several partners, or have sex that is rough enough to cause bleeding.
You cannot get hepatitis C by touching, kissing, coughing, sneezing, breastfeeding, or sharing utensils.
You should be tested for hepatitis C if:
- You received blood from a donor who found out they have hepatitis C
- You’ve ever injected drugs into your system
- You had a blood transfusion or organ transplant before July 1992
- You were born between 1945 and 1965
- You received a blood product to treat clotting problems before 1987
- Your mother had hepatitis C when she gave birth to you
- You have HIV
- You’ve had long-term kidney dialysis
How is hepatitis C treated?
There are several different treatment options. What works best is different for everyone.
What treatment you receive will depend on what type of hepatitis C virus you have.
Most treatments these days are focused on direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs). DAAs generally have fewer side effects.
Glecaprevir and pibrentasvir (Mavyret) can be used for adult patients with all types of the hepatitis C virus but who don’t have cirrhosis and who haven’t been previously treated.
Elbasvir-grazoprevir (Zepatier), -velpatasvir (Epclusa), and ledipasvir- () are once-daily combination pills.
These are only some of the treatments offered for hepatitis C. Talk to you doctor about what’s the best treatment for you, based on your medical needs.
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