What is Hepatitis C?

Transmission
The Hepatitis C virus is transmitted through blood.

• unsafe injection practices or unsafe health care: using contaminated needles, syringes or other equipment, e.g. syringes or needles previously used by an infected person to inject drugs, using inadequately sterilized injection equipment in healthcare settings
• unscreened blood transfusions (in the past, blood products were not systematically tested for HCV but in Thailand blood donations have been systematically screened for more than 2 decades)
• sexual practices that lead to exposure to contaminated blood
• from an infected mother to her child during pregnancy or delivery.

Symptoms at time of infection

Signs usually occur between 2 weeks and 6 months after contamination. Most people (80%) do not present any symptoms; otherwise, they can experience fever, fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite associated or not with jaundice. However, chronic hepatitis C will damage the liver with severe consequences.

Prevention
Because there are usually no symptoms, many people do not know that they have been infected. Thus, they can transmit the virus to others without knowing. There is no vaccine available for hepatitis C yet. It is usually not known that another person is living with HCV. It is therefore essential to reduce the risk of transmission by avoiding the use of potentially contaminated equipment and protecting oneself during sexual intercourse.