INFECTIOUS

DISEASE
PROJECT
Hepatitis C
Nikkita Mae C. Ampongan| Ms. Aslam| R.H.
King Academy
What is Hepatitis?
• Hepatitis – is the inflammation/swelling of
the liver.
• Inflammation – is when our liver is
getting sore and reddish that may
result for our body tissues to be injured
or get infected. Also inflammation can
cause for our body to not work properly.
What is hepatitis c?
• Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the
many viruses that can cause
inflammation of the liver.
• Hepatitis C is generally termed as the
inflammation of liver. The inflammation
can be caused by an infection.
Hepatitis can also be caused by over
using of alcohol, medicines, chemicals,
poisons, and other toxics or by other
disease.
• Inflammation of the liver caused by
infection with Hepatitis C virus or HCV
is referred to as hepatitis C.
Hepatitis history
 It is difficult to limit the origin of HCV in
such a short period of human history for some
reasons that the virus is found in remote areas
all over the world. Additionally the virus is
spread through blood to blood contact, making
it difficult to find the routes of the virus. In the
year 1960’s-1970’s Scientists in that year made
some tests for identifying hepatitis A (1963),
and hepatitis B (1973) but based from the tests
they had been taken many of the blood samples
were tested negative for hepatitis A and
hepatitis B. They believed that about 90%-95%
of cases previously classified as non-A non-B
(NA/NB) were actually hepatitis C. In the 1980’s
Daniel W. Bradley and Chiron Michael Houghton
lead the investigation to identify the virus. Blood
banks began screening blood donors for
etiology
 Hepatitis C is usually spread through contact with blood
products. People who use intravenous (IV) drugs can get
hepatitis C when they share needles with someone who has the
virus. Also not proper sterilization of needles used can also
cause hepatitis. Until recently some health departments, clinics,
hospitals and doctors forget to dispose their hazardous waste
properly affecting many lives of people by having this kind of
disease. Syringes and needles are soaked in alcohol but this
procedure is proven that it didn’t work. Drug usage, tattoos and
Acupuncture are also known to be some reason for these
disease to spread out. One of the example of these are people
experiment through their curiosity on one point of their lives, not
knowing the consequences but still doing what they wanted.
Sharing contaminated needles may have spread the disease
from one person to another. Other people may have visited
unclean tattoo parlours or acupuncture shops. Last common
cause of HCV is sexually transmitted disease. Some people may
be diagnose with HCV virus because they lack knowledge about
having affairs with somebody that they don’t know if they are
sick or not. Although sexual transmission as a cause of hepatitis
Symptoms
 When hepatitis C gets in the body of a
person it is referred as an acute phase. In the
acute phase people might experience getting
tired easily, and yellowing of the eyes and skin.
Other symptoms such as headache, fever, and
abdominal pain may also occur. However, many
people experience no symptoms during this
acute phase of infection. When symptoms are
present they can range from mild to severe. The
most common early symptoms are mild fever,
headache, muscle aches, fatigue, loss of
appetite, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Later
symptoms may include dark coffee-colored
rather than dark yellow urine, clay-colored
stools and abdominal pain.
preventions
Some main things on how to prevent HCV:


1. Sharing kitchen utensils - spreading hepatitis C requires direct contact

with infected blood, not saliva.
2. Kissing someone – Kissing is actually not well known way on how to
catch HCV but you can get these virus through saliva. Also kissing is
not a high risk for Hepatitis C.
3. Getting a tattoo or piercing – We all know that tattoo is a famous way of
skin art getting this can be safe if you will come to a tattoo studio
following correct procedures of proper hygiene and disposal of
waste. Some unregulated and amateur artist probably present the
greatest risk.
4. Eating food and drinking water – Some hepatitis viruses are spread
through food and water, but not hepatitis C. Street foods in some
countries are famous, some of them don’t realize that the food their
selling is contaminated or worst they already have the virus.
5. Practicing Safe Sex - Hepatitis C can be spread through sexual contact,
especially rough sex (when the skin is at risk of being cut or
scratched), but this is a very low risk.
6. Nursing a Baby - Obviously, this one is for the women only. While there is
a very slight risk of spreading hepatitis C from a pregnant woman to
the baby, breastfeeding does not spread hepatitis C. However,
Treatment and cures
 The objective of treating hepatitis c is to lessen the infection of the liver disease.
Although there are some possible treatments to cure the disease and they
are as follows:
• Pegylated interferon and ribavirin – in these treatment there are two
combinations of medication to take and that is pegylated and interferon
and ribavirin. This treatment is taken as a pill. It is recommended that a
patient should take it about 48 weeks. Treatment of hepatitis C is not
recommended for everyone for some factors. The patient and the health
care provider should discuss the potential risks and benefits of the
treatment before making a plan to proceed. This are some of the factors
that people can’t take the treatments:
– Interferon treatment is not recommended for people who have
depression problems because they can use this to commit suicide
and cause there life to death. Interferon can cure people with
disciplined mind and can control there selves.
– Ribavirin is not recommended for women who are pregnant,
contemplating pregnancy or cannot be able to use a reliable birth
contol.
– People experiencing some disease like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis
may be in greater risks of treatment-related complications related
to interferon.
TREATMENTS AND CURE
Cure – The chances of the patients to get better is


depending on what type of hepatitis c virus. (i.e.

genotype) In general the chances of genotype 1
is approximately 40 to 50 percent while for
genotype 2 and 3 is approximately 80 percent.
The patient must wait for 6 months to know if
the treatment cured him/her and also wait for
the therapy to be complete. They defined cure
as the absence of virus for more than 6 months
after stopping the therapy. Follow up studies of
this people shows that there are no virus in the
liver after 10 year.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• MamasHealth, Inc.™. (2000-2009). The Human Liver: function, body
location, disease of, picture, shape. November 12, 2009, from
http://www.mamashealth.com/organs/liver.asp
• Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief (2006). A Brief History of Hepatitis C.
November 12, 2009, from
http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/Brief_History_HCV_200
• Steven Kobrin (2001-2008). Causes of Hepatitis C. November 19, from
http://www.small-business-ideas.org/causes-of-hepatitis-c.shtml
• MediResource Inc. (1996-2009) Hepatitis C - Causes, Symptoms,
Treatment, Diagnosis - Condition Factsheets - C-Health. November 19,
2009.
http://chealth.canoe.ca/condition_info_details.asp?disease_id=292
• UpToDate, Inc. (2009) Hepatitis C. November 20, 2009. from
http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~nVqO9/rmP3
• BRIAN HAYNES. Las Vegas Review-Journal (1997-2009) HEPATITIS C
OUTBREAK: LV police suggest charges - News - ReviewJournal.com.
November 20, 2009. from
http://www.lvrj.com/news/lv-police-suggest-charges-70605177.html
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