Hepatitis C is a dangerous disease that leads to liver cirrhosis and cancer, as well as death if left untreated.

Myth: Hepatitis C is incurable

According to WHO, about 1.5 million people become infected with hepatitis C every year.

Currently, 58 million people in the world suffer from a chronic form of the disease. Hepatitis C is life-threatening: in 2019, about 290 thousand people died from its complications. Effective medications for this disease are still expensive, but more affordable and better options have emerged. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C yet. However, a diagnosis of hepatitis C is a death sentence.

Until 2014, treatment of chronic hepatitis C was carried out using the same drugs, without taking into account the genotype of the virus. Currently, most countries, including Russia, are using a new concept for treating this disease.

With the correct selection of medications by a hepatologist, the patient can be completely cured of hepatitis C.

Myth: The most typical manifestation of hepatitis is jaundice

Jaundice is a known condition, but it actually occurs in only 10% of hepatitis cases. Most patients experience the disease in an anicteric (latent) form, when the only symptoms are weakness and nausea, which are not so rare in healthy people. Thus, a person can be sick with hepatitis and suffer from the disease without knowing it, and in some of the patients the exacerbation can become chronic. In approximately 5% of people who have had a latent form of hepatitis B, the disease becomes chronic. And for the latent form of hepatitis C, this figure is 80%. This is very dangerous, because there is a risk of not noticing the disease.

A general blood test, which is most often done in clinics, does not detect the disease. They are not tested for hepatitis C when applying for a job. To identify the presence of hepatitis in the present or past, the patient must contact an infectious disease specialist and undergo a special test for antibodies. The presence of specific antibodies to the hepatitis virus will indicate whether the disease has occurred.

Myth: The main way to get hepatitis B and C is through sexual contact

This common myth is not true. Hepatitis is not a sexually transmitted disease, and sexual transmission of this virus is observed in only 15% of cases. This means that out of 100 people who have regular sex life and have a partner with hepatitis, only 15 people will become infected versus 85 who will remain healthy. The main route of transmission of hepatitis and HIV is the parenteral route, i.e. through the blood.

You can become infected during surgery or childbirth, when visiting the dentist, through the sharing of needles when using drugs, during blood transfusions, after visiting a tattoo parlor. In developed countries, the likelihood of transmitting the virus through blood transfusion is minimal, since donors are carefully checked, and obstetric and dental instruments are processed properly, as in good tattoo parlors. Thus, the most common methods remain the sharing of needles for drug use, which could easily be avoided if people did not use these drugs.

Hepatitis is transmitted through blood, so infection through household or contact is only theoretically possible and very unlikely: it is safe to hug or kiss an infected person, live in the same house and use the same utensils and even personal hygiene products (toothbrushes, razors).