
Hepatitis C Support Group
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.
Remember when you were a child and you fell and scraped your knee? After the bleeding and the cleaning, a scab developed, right? Then, after a period of time the scar went away, leave a faint scar or color on the skin. Eventually, that would go away as well.
Now, imagine falling and scraping that same spot - over and over and over again. After a while, the scar tissue would build up, getting thicker and bumpier. That's what happens to the liver. It's the only organ other than the skin that regenerates, but after so many years of the virus attacking cells that replicate and repeat the process, the liver scars. The early stage of this is called fibrosis, with the later stage being referred to as "cirrhosis."