What is Hepatitis C? How Hepatitis C is Transmitted

Hepatitis C is a type of liver disease. After being infected with the hepatitis C virus, there is a certain incubation period. There are also many ways of transmission, most commonly through intravenous drug injection, sexual transmission, and mother-to-child transmission. Therefore, it is also necessary to pay attention to the prevention of hepatitis C.

Mode of transmission

Hepatitis C is a common liver disease that affects people's health. So what are the symptoms of late-stage hepatitis C? This is an issue that people are more concerned about in daily life. In response to this issue, let's take a look at the experts' brief introduction to the symptoms of late-stage hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), which is transmitted through blood transfusion or blood products, hemodialysis, plasmapheresis or blood cell transfusion, kidney transplantation, intravenous drug injection, sexual transmission, and mother-to-child transmission. The late-stage symptoms of hepatitis C are similar to those of hepatitis B, but the threat of hepatitis C to human health is no less than that of hepatitis B. Hepatitis C is widely distributed and is more likely to develop into chronic disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer. Due to the different nature of hepatitis C, late symptoms of hepatitis C can be divided into acute late symptoms of hepatitis C and chronic late symptoms of hepatitis C.

Late-stage symptoms of acute hepatitis C:

The average incubation period after hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is 6 to 7 weeks, and the incubation period may vary in length depending on the amount of virus infected and the mode of infection. The main late symptoms of hepatitis C during the acute hepatitis C virus infection period are similar to those of hepatitis A and B virus infections. There are many kinds of late symptoms of hepatitis C, namely, discomfort in the liver area, fatigue, drowsiness, anorexia, abdominal pain, jaundice, mild hepatosplenomegaly, maculopapular rash, joint pain and other late symptoms of hepatitis C. These late symptoms of hepatitis C may last for 2 to 12 weeks. However, during the acute infection period, 60% to 75% of HCV-infected people do not show symptoms of late-stage hepatitis C. The small number of people with late-stage hepatitis C symptoms are often considered to have discomfort caused by other reasons, and this discomfort also disappears quickly, so even fewer people report late-stage hepatitis C symptoms. Fulminant hepatitis is very rare during the acute phase of HCV infection.

Symptoms of late stage chronic hepatitis C:

HCV in patients infected with hepatitis C virus

If RNA positivity persists for more than 6 months, the patient is a chronic hepatitis C patient. Some chronically infected patients may experience late-stage hepatitis C symptoms such as discomfort in the liver area, nausea, abdominal pain and itching, while most patients do not have obvious late-stage hepatitis C symptoms. Physical examination of patients with chronic hepatitis C may reveal characteristics of chronic liver disease, such as spider angiomas, liver palms, capillary dilation and other late symptoms of hepatitis C. In the late stages of the disease, when it progresses to cirrhosis, late symptoms of hepatitis C such as jaundice, splenomegaly, ascites, esophageal varices and hepatic encephalopathy may appear. Patients with chronic hepatitis C may also experience extrahepatic manifestations and late-stage hepatitis C symptoms.