What is Hepatitis C?
Hepatitis C is an infection caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) that attacks the liver and leads to inflammation. Inflammation is the painful, red swelling that results when tissues of the body become injured or infected. Inflammation can cause organs to not work properly. It is difficult for the human immune system to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) from the body, hepatitis C infection is often asymptomatic but chronic infection (chronic hepatitis C disease) can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years. In many cases cirrhosis patients will go on to develop liver failure or other complications, including liver cancer or it could be life-threatening.

Hepatitis C is one of several hepatitis viruses and is generally considered to be among the most serious of these viruses. In the U.S., the number of new cases of HCV infection has declined from a peak of 200,000 annually to about 17,000 in 2007. Most people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) have no symptoms. In fact, 8 out of 10 people do not know they have hepatitis C infection until liver damage shows up, decades later, during routine medical tests. About 75% of these people go on to develop a chronic hepatitis.

Hepatitis C disease it can take years, even decades, for symptoms to appear, many people remain unaware they have a problem. By the time they become ill and seek help, considerable damage has been done to the liver. This might have been prevented if the person had been diagnosed earlier. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the leading cause of liver transplantation in the U.S and is a risk factor for liver cancer.

There is currently no vaccine against hepatitis C but there is effective treatment available.

The causes of Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is one type of hepatitis disease, it is a common liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). It usually spreads through contact with infected blood. It can also spread through sex with an infected person and from mother to baby during childbirth. The risk of acquiring HCV through sexual contact is low and drug abuse is the most common mode of transmission.

Two Measurement Indicators of Hepatitis C
1.HCV-Ab:
HCV-Ab belongs to non-protective antibodies. If HCV-Ab shows positive, it means the patients had been infected with hepatitis C virus and now they are still infected with hepatitis C virus. If the HCV-Ab shows negative at one time, it cannot prove the patient don't infect hepatitis C virus, because hepatitis C virus belongs to RNA virus which are easy to have variation. After infecting hepatitis C virus, here is a period during which patients with hepatitis C don't produce antibody. In this period, the test result still shows negative even the patients have develop hepatitis C. People have to have a second check after producing period to identity whether they have infected hepatitis C or not. Generally speaking, there needs about 3 to 6 months to produce HCV-Ab.

2.HCV-RNA:
If the HCV-RNA shows positive, it means the hepatitis C virus is duplicating and the liver cells have inflammatory reaction.