A scrupulous question: how many live with hepatitis C?

In order to know how many live with hepatitis C, first of all it is necessary to understand what kind of illness it is. This name in medicine denotes a number of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases of the liver. Inflammation can be caused by various causes. Depending on this, several types of hepatitis are distinguished: infectious, toxic (including alcoholic and medicinal hepatitis) and radiation.

Hepatitis C

This species is considered the most common. Such a form of hepatitis, doctors call a "gentle killer", because the disease is able to mask symptoms under a variety of other diseases. Infection with hepatitis C in most cases parenteral (that is, the virus is transmitted through infected blood and its components). Potential source of infection are carriers of active virus and latent patients. Simply put, there is a risk of contracting a visit to a medical facility, a dentist's chair, a tattoo parlor, and a manicure room. The probability of getting infected during sexual intercourse is small, but still exists.

How many live with hepatitis C?

The incubation period of the disease can be very large - it is on average from 2 to 26 weeks. Often a person for years does not suspect that he is a carrier of the virus, and learns about it, only after he passes the tests. It's natural that after that he has a question: "How many live with hepatitis C?" Unfortunately, the forecast is not too optimistic. Complete recovery occurs in 20 - 25 percent of cases (recall that it is a case of acute viral hepatitis C). In the remaining 75 to 80 percent, the disease becomes chronic and slowly flows into cirrhosis or carcinoma over time. According to statistical data, 15% of those infected get spontaneous recovery, 25% of the disease is hidden.

Do I need to be treated?

Of course, yes. With a competent and timely treatment, the answer to the question "how much they live with hepatitis C" will be as follows: about 50 percent of patients completely recover and live a long full life. However, people affected by the virus should subsequently refrain from alcohol, tobacco, and monitor their diet.
How many live with hepatitis C without treatment?

Hepatitis C is dangerous not so much by itself, as by its complications, in particular fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver. On average, this disease develops in patients for ten to fifteen years. The destruction of the liver increases with a combination of factors such as diabetes, steatosis, tuberculosis, obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction. Many carriers of the virus, leading an incorrect lifestyle and refusing treatment, die from liver cancer. However, with strict adherence to all prescriptions of a doctor, a person has all the chances to live as much as physically healthy people.

Prevention of disease

All people infected with the hepatitis C virus must be registered with the regional dispensary and take a number of tests every year (blood, urine, ultrasound of the liver). In general, the main focus is on protecting the liver. The patient should follow a certain diet and give up bad habits. If necessary, a person is sent for hospitalization.