Hepatitis C Treatment

What is hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C is a viral disease of the liver that may cause a mild, short-lived infection or develop into a life-long condition. Many patients don't know they have hepatitis C until they undergo a routine blood test.

Acute hepatitis C symptoms can develop up to six months after exposure to the virus. However, in most cases, it causes few or no symptoms. When symptoms are present, they might include:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Dark-colored urine
• Abdominal pain
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea and vomiting
• Joint pain
• Jaundice (yellow skin or eyes)
• Clay-colored stools
  
  

More than 50% of people who have acute hepatitis C go on to develop chronic hepatitis C. The chronic form may cause no symptoms other than fatigue or depression, which are symptoms of numerous diseases.

It can take a long time – more than 20 years sometimes – to start experiencing problems with your liver due to chronic hepatitis C. Unfortunately, in that time, you could develop potentially life-threatening health problems such as cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver cancer without the proper treatment.

How would I catch the hepatitis C virus?

A hepatitis C infection is most often a result of exposure to blood from someone who already has the virus. That is common in people who share needles and other equipment when using drugs that could have infected blood on them.

For that reason, Victory Recovery Partners screens all its patients for hepatitis C before they start their addiction rehabilitation program. Even if you don't inject drugs, there are ways you could get hepatitis C, for example, sharing razors, toothbrushes, and other personal items that could have blood on them.

Using an unregulated provider for body piercings and tattoos could also be a source of hepatitis C infection, and you can catch hepatitis C from unprotected sex. Having the infection once doesn't protect you from future infection, so you could pick up a new case of hepatitis C if you continue to put yourself at risk.

What does hepatitis C treatment involve?

Acute hepatitis C has no specific treatment. If you know you have the disease, your physician at Victory Recovery Partners monitors you to see if you develop the chronic form of hepatitis C. If you do, there are highly effective medications available that can cure over 90% of chronic hepatitis C cases.

Chronic hepatitis C treatment involves taking an eight to twelve-week course of oral antiviral medication, after which the infection should subside. Your Victory Recovery Partners physician can confirm this with another blood test.

To find out more about hepatitis C treatment, call Victory Recovery Partners or book an appointment online today for an evaluation.