Hepatitis C
It is a viral infection that causes hepatitis, which sometimes leads to serious liver damage. The hepatitis C virus is spread through contaminated blood.
Symptoms
Long-term infection with hepatitis C virus is known as chronic epidemic hepatitis C. Chronic hepatitis C is usually a "silent" infection for several years, until the virus damages the liver enough to cause signs and symptoms of liver disease.
Signs and symptoms include:
Easy bleeding
Bruising occurs easily
Exhaustion
Poor appetite
Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice)
Dark-colored urine
Itchy skin
Fluid buildup in your abdomen (ascites)
Swelling of both legs
Weight loss
Confusion, drowsiness and speech interference (hepatic encephalopathy)
Spider-like blood vessels on your skin (Spider hemangiomas)
Each chronic hepatitis C infection begins with an acute stage. Hepatitis C is not usually diagnosed because it rarely causes symptoms. When you show signs and symptoms may include jaundice, along with fatigue, nausea, fever and muscle pain. Acute symptoms appear one to three months after exposure to the virus, and last from two to three months.
Acute hepatitis C does not always turn into chronic. Specializes some people from hepatitis C. HCV from their bodies after the acute phase, a result known as the development of viral automatic. In studies of people infected with HCV, spontaneous viral clearance rates ranged from 15% to 25%. Acute hepatitis C responds well to antiviral therapy.