The immune system of modern man is not actually able to defeat the pathogen hepatitis C virus (HCV) without outside help. And in the body of the virus sometimes live for years, appearing only excessive fatigue and weakness from time to time. But then the latent infection medium may die suddenly. A reason would rapidly developing cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Important:affecting the liver, the disease aggravates and other existing patient ailments. A patient may then die of anything - from the cardiovascular, endocrine or renal disease, and did not even guess that fatal aggravation was caused by HCV it.
Infection: how does it happen?
Through the blood more often. The reason may be a dirty syringes and / or needles among drug addicts, poorly sterilized MEDINSTRUMENT (including dental), transfusions of unscreened blood. The danger may be a manicure, tattooing, body piercing. Additionally, the disease is transmitted through sexual contact, and from infected mother to newborn (but much less than in the blood).
However, hepatitis C can not be transmitted through breast milk, food or physical contact such as handshakes or hugs.
symptoms
Intrigue terrible virus is that after an incubation period (from 2 weeks to 6 months), only 20% of the patients have symptoms of disease:
- fever;
- loss of appetite;
- constant feeling of fatigue;
- nausea and even vomiting;
- abdominal pain and joint pain;
- dark urine and gray chair;
- yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes.
And the remaining 80% of infected disease occurs without symptoms, which complicates the diagnosis of HCV in acute stage. And that means a high risk of transition of this form of the disease into a chronic.
How to treat hepatitis C?
After the diagnosis of chronic HCV patient by biopsy (or other procedures) can be estimated condition of his liver, it appears the degree of lesion (fibrosis already there or cirrhosis). And then the assigned therapy.
Generally, HCV treatment standards are changing rapidly as new, more advanced drugs.
So "direct antiviral agents" (or PAA) was transferred to HCV therapy to a whole new, higher level. They are effective and relatively safe, and most importantly, make it possible to treat many infected over the course of 12 weeks, with far fewer complications.
And recently recommended by CHMP for admission were even 2 drugs: Epclusa and Zepatier. With the first treat diseases caused by any of the six genotypes of hepatitis C. The second is for the treatment of genotypes 1 and 4. And then, and more medicines are clinically testing 2,000 patients, and 90% recovered after hepatitis never detected.
All is good, but there is a serious problem: all of these drugs are extremely expensive. The patient was in Russia for an effective cure will have to pay 1 or even 2 million rubles. And to get these drugs at OMC policy is quite impossible.
Prevention of hepatitis C
Today's reality is that the vaccine which would protect against hepatitis C, do not exist. But there are ways and methods of disease prevention, primarily relating to medical facilities staff. Thus, WHO recommends:
- do not forget about hand hygiene, especially preoperative;
- Use disposable gloves;
- comply with the BOP, using and disposing of sharp instruments and so on.
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