How many people infected with hcv

When symptoms appear, they often are a sign of advanced liver disease. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C. The best way to prevent hepatitis C is by avoiding behaviors that can spread the disease, especially injecting drugs. Getting tested for hepatitis C is important, because treatments can cure most people with hepatitis C in 8 to 12 weeks.

Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Viral Hepatitis. Section Navigation. For Providers For Patients. Hepatitis C Testing Recommendations. Hepatitis C Information. Minus Related Pages. Questions and Answers For Health Professionals. In hepatitis C there are 6 major variations of the virus, labelled 1 to 6. Different genotypes predominate in different parts of the world. One genotype cannot change into another. However, it is possible, although rare, to be infected with more than one genotype at the same time.

A hepatitis C infection can be categorised into two stages. The first stage is acute infection following initial infection. The second stage is chronic infection. The acute stage refers to the first 6 months of infection and does not necessarily result in any noticeable symptoms. The course of a chronic hepatitis C infection is extremely varied and unpredictable. Some people experience very few symptoms for as long as a decade.

Others can suffer symptoms almost from the start. Some will progress to develop fibrosis and cirrhosis scarring of the liver, liver cancer or end stage liver disease, while others experience very little liver damage, even after many years.

In cases where there is an absence of symptoms many people do not discover that they have HCV until some time after they have been infected. Another reason that hepatitis C goes undiagnosed for many years is that its symptoms can often be put down to other illnesses. For example, depression, fatigue, skin problems, insomnia, pain and digestive disorders could all have other causes.

Drug treatment to eradicate the virus has advanced greatly in the last few years. Hepatitis C often does not have any noticeable symptoms until the liver has been significantly damaged. The only way to know for certain if these symptoms are caused by hepatitis C is to get tested. In the UK, most hepatitis C infections happen in people who inject drugs or have injected them in the past. It's estimated around half of those who inject drugs have been infected with the virus.

Seek medical advice if you have persistent symptoms of hepatitis C or there's a risk you're infected, even if you do not have any symptoms. A blood test can be carried out to see if you have the infection. GPs, sexual health clinics, genitourinary medicine GUM clinics or drug treatment services all offer testing for hepatitis C.

Early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent or limit any damage to your liver, as well as help ensure the infection is not passed on to other people. Find out more about testing for hepatitis C. Hepatitis C can be treated with medicines that stop the virus multiplying inside the body.