Know About The Contributing Factors Of Hepatitis C

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes hepatitis C, a liver disease. The virus causes both acute and chronic hepatitis which could range from severe to mild illness, lasting for a few weeks or can extend to a serious life-long illness. This disease is a major cause of liver cancer. It is a blood-borne virus and it is estimated that 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection globally. Antiviral medicines are said to cure nearly 95% of people with hepatitis C but currently, there is no effective vaccine against the infection. An estimated 2.4 million people in the country are living with hepatitis C viral infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to eliminate HCV as a public health threat by 2030.

The following people have an increased risk of HCV infection:

• Former or current illegal drug users including those who injected themselves only once many years ago.
• People who received clotting factor concentrates made before 1987 when there were less advanced methods of manufacturing these products.
• People who received a blood transfusion or solid organ transplants before July 1992 as better testing of blood donors become available only later.
• Patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis.
• People with known exposures to HCV like healthcare workers who may be infected after using needles involving HCV positive blood and recipients of organs or blood from HCV positive donors.
• People with HIV infection.
• Children born to HCV positive mothers.

Contributors to the hepatitis C virus are usually certain risk factors that cause hepatitis C. HCV is primarily transmitted through parenteral exposures to body fluids that contain blood or infectious blood.

Some of the few contributors to hepatitis C are as follows:

• Injection drug use is the most common contributor to HCV transmission in our country. Injection drug use is an important risk factor for hepatitis C virus transmission. Recipients of donated blood, blood products, and organs are also at risk of HCV. This way of transmission was very common in earlier days but is said to be rare in the country after 1992 since blood screening became available.
• Needlestick injuries that happen in healthcare settings.
• Birth to a hepatitis C virus-infected mother.
• Sexual relations with a hepatitis C virus-infected person.
• Hepatitis C can be caused by sharing personal items which are contaminated with infected blood like razors or toothbrushes.
• Some healthcare procedures that involve invasive procedures like injection also contribute to hepatitis C.
• Unregulated tattooing.

According to a multi-state review of global HCV infection prevalence in 2017, it is said that this disease ranges from 38.1% to 68.0% in our country. There is limited data regarding the contributors of hepatitis C with regards to illegal drug use. Due to the more advanced screening test, the contributor of hepatitis C through blood transfusion has greatly reduced after 1992.

Medical and dental procedures performed in the country generally do not pose a risk for the contribution of hepatitis C as long as standard precautions and other infection control practices are used consistently. Hepatitis C contributors can be within a household too but do not occur often. It spreads most likely due to a result of direct parenteral or percutaneous exposure to the blood of an infected household member.