You can often ease the stress of illness by joining a support group of people who share common experiences and problems. See liver disease - resources.

Most people with hepatitis C infection have the chronic form.

Patients with genotypes 2 or 3 are more likely to respond to treatment than patients with genotype 1.

The chance of removing the hepatitis C virus from the blood with treatment is over 90% for some people. Even if treatment does not remove the virus, it can reduce the chance of severe liver disease.

Many doctors use the term "sustained virologic response" rather than "cure" when the virus is removed from the blood, because it is not known whether this will last a person's entire life.

Hepatitis C is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease in the United States today. People with this condition may have:

• Cirrhosis of the liver
• Liver cancer (also called hepatocellular cancer) -- may develop in a small number of people with liver cirrhosis

Hepatitis C usually comes back after a liver transplant, which can lead to cirrhosis of the new liver.

Call your health care provider if:

• You develop symptoms of hepatitis
• You believe you have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus

Images

Digestive system organs

Hepatitis C

• < Page
1 2
• >

Review Date: 11/23/2010
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Unviersity of Washington School of Medicine; and George F. Longstreth, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, San Diego, California. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)