Hepatitis C (LG-HCV)
Viral infection that causes liver inflammation
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What is Hepatitis C (LG-HCV) Sequencing?
Hepatitis C is a viral infection which causes liver inflammation, sometimes leading to serious liver damage. The hepatitis C virus (LG-HCV) spreads through contaminated blood.
Hepatitis C treatment required weekly injections & oral medications that a lot of LG-HCV infected peoples could not take because of other health problems or unacceptable side effects.
That’s changing. Today, chronic LG-HCV is usually curable with oral medications taken every day for 2 to 6 months. Still, about half of people with LG-HCV do not know they are infected, mainly because they have no symptoms, which can take decades to appear.
Who should need Hepatitis C Sequencing?
Long-term infection with the hepatitis C virus (LG-HCV) is known as chronic hepatitis C. Chronic hepatitis C is known a “silent” infection for many years, until the virus damages the liver enough to cause the signs and symptoms of liver diseases. Among these signs and symptoms are:
- Bleeding easily
- Bruising easily
- Fatigue
- Poor appetite
- Yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes (jaundice)
- Dark-colored urine
- Itchy skin
- Fluid buildup in your abdomen (ascites)
- Swelling in your legs
- Weight loss
- Confusion, drowsiness and slurred speech (hepatic encephalopathy)
- Spider-like blood vessels on your skin (spider angiomas).
Risk Factors:-
Your risk of hepatitis C infection is raised if you:
- A medical care worker who has been exposed to infected blood, which may happen if an infected needle pierces of the skin;
- Have ever injected or inhaled illicit drugs;
- Have HIV;
- Obtained a piercing or tattoo in an unclean environment using unsterile equipment;
- Obtained a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992;
- Received clotting factor concentrates before 1987;
- Received hemodialysis treatments for a long time;
- Were born to a female with a hepatitis C infection;
- Were ever in prison.
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