Chronic Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a virus which leads to chronic hepatitis, and leads to slowly progressive damage of liver, ultimately resulting in cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Route and transmission of virus:

1. Transfusion of contaminated blood prodcuts
2. Sharing of needle by untrained health care workers
3. Sharing of needle amongst drug abusers

Symptoms depend upon the stage of the disease

1. Patient may be totally asymptomatic, diagnosed on screening blood tests
2. Patient with chronic hepatitis may complain of fatigue
3. Patients with advanced liver disease may complain of ascites (fluid in abdomen), feet swelling, vomitinig of blood, change in behavior

Diagnosis

Following test are done for diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C

1. LFT
2. Anti HCV antibody
3. HCV RNA, quantitative and qualitative

Treatment depends upon stage of liver disease and genotype of virus

1. Genotype 1 usually requires treatment for 48 weeks with PEG IFN and Ribavarin, Efficacy of treatment is around 50%
2. Genotype 2 and 3 are easy to treat, treatment response is 70-90%, and the duration of treatment is 24 week
3. Response rate in previously non responders has improved with addition of Telaprevirand Boceprevir to the Peg Interferon and Ribavari
4. Recently trail for Sofosbuvir and Ribavarin had shown that injection free treatment without side effect will be available in near future