Hepatitis C currently affects 5 million Americans. 1 in 5 people are at risk for the virus, and 30% of people who have it have no idea how they got it. Many people, in fact, may be at risk without knowing it. According to Mary Morrison, a Family Nurse Practitioner at Eastern Plumas Health Care who has been treating this virus for 14 years, risk factors include: IV drug use or snorting drugs, blood transfusions before 1992, tattoos, piercings, a shared razor or toothbrush.

Further, many people who contract the virus, which is passed by blood to blood contact, show no symptoms for 20 years or more. Other people will never have any symptoms. Further, Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver transplants. The difference between life and death in some cases, or a healthy life and an unhealthy one in others, is early diagnosis and treatment.

Morrison said most of the Hepatitis C patients she sees in Plumas County were exposed 20 – 30 years ago. Most, also, were exposed briefly in a one time occurrence. That’s all it takes for this particular virus, said Morrison. The exposure is usually accidental, and her patients may have felt slight symptoms that they attributed to the flu. Those symptoms cleared and, 20 years later, they’re showing signs of the virus.

Hepatitis C is a virus that causes inflammation and then, if not diagnosed and treated, scarring of the liver. That scarring is called cirrhosis. Over time the tiny scars caused by the virus join together and prevent blood from flowing through the liver. Your liver’s essential functions include: transforming your food into energy and acting as a filter to clean wastes and poisons.

Morrison emphasized how important it is for people who think they might be at risk for, or have symptoms of, Hepatitis C to get tested. It’s not something to be ashamed or frightened of, and it’s vital to get diagnosed early for treatment to be successful. Morrison said she wants people to be aware, so that they can be healthy, stay healthy, and keep those around them safe, as well, since those who have the virus can pass it on accidentally through blood to blood contact.

Symptoms:
You may have no symptoms at all. Some people will have mild to severe flu-like symptoms, abdominal discomfort, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and sometimes yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice).

Onset of symptoms:
If you get symptoms, they’re likely to appear from 2 weeks to 6 months after you were exposed to the virus. The average time for symptoms to appear is 6 – 9 weeks after exposure. Again, many people who get the virus have no symptoms.

Why it’s important to get tested for Hepatitis C:
It’s very important to detect the virus while it’s still in the inflammation stage and before it causes cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver. According to Morrison, if your blood tests start showing a fluctuation (increase and decrease) in liver enzymes there’s a chance you may have Hepatitis C, and you should be tested further. Your health care provider can test you for Hepatitis C using a simple blood test, which looks for the virus in your blood stream. A liver biopsy may follow, in order to determine how much damage your liver has already sustained, but this isn’t always necessary.

Hepatitis C can be treated successfully:
With increased research into the virus, treatment has become very successful in many cases. There are several different genotypes of Hepatitis C, and some respond to treatment better than others. How long treatment lasts is determined by the genotype you have and whether or not you already have cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver. Also, it’s important to “take away anything that can make the liver angry,” said Morrison. The greatest enemy to successful treatment is alcohol, but Morrison states that herbal preparations also make the liver much worse. These include Kava Kava, Ginkgo Biloba, and Comfrey, among others. Your health care provider can educate you regarding healthy nutrition as well as what products are unsafe for you.

Treatments and their side effects:
Excellent research has made treatment much more successful. This knowledge also enables your doctor or family nurse practitioner to help you manage side effects much more easily. The standard treatment is a combination of pegalyted interferon, which is injected weekly, and riboviron, taken daily in pill form. Some of the main side effects include: headaches, body aches, nausea, fatigue, depression, hair thinning, dry skin, and dry mouth. Morrison emphasized that, with your health provider’s support, these side effects can be “anticipated and managed” quite successfully and are well worth the outcome, when it means saving your liver and your life.

You CAN beat Hepatitis C!
Morrison said it’s important for Hepatitis C patients “to know you can do something, to know how to be taken care of . . . know how and when to intervene.” Simply put, if you think you might be at risk for Hepatitis C, don’t hide from this virus, because if you fight it, you can win.