Hepatitis C - viral diseasewhich is sick about 3% of the population of our planet. Its danger lies in the fact that after a couple of months or years after infection, there is a rapid development of liver cirrhosis and cancer.

The incubation period for hepatitis C is different and depends on the characteristics of the organism and its ability to resist viruses.

Most often it is 4-9 months. But it also happens that incubation period  Hepatitis C is reduced to a few weeks. This suggests the development of acute hepatitis, which is able to start the process of fibrosis (transformation of the liver) in a very short time.

Sources of infection

World statistics show that the number of people with hepatitis C increases by 0.3% every year. And this is a very large number, because we are talking about millions of people. But the strangest thing is that hepatitis C is not transmitted by airborne droplets when using common utensils and other household items, and the number of infected people continues to grow.

Infection with hepatitis C is possible only by contact with infected blood. Therefore, more than 60% of sick people from the total mass are drug addicts, since it is only their nature to use repeatedly syringes and needles for the intravenous administration of narcotic substances.

The remaining 40% of patients are infected by chance. For example, a child walking in the street may grab a syringe from the ground and accidentally stab a finger with it. And an adult person’s infection can occur in any medical institution where sanitary norms are not observed, or when treating wounds to a sick person, not knowing about his illness.

Infection with a virus is possible under various circumstances (surgery, cuts, etc.), the main thing to remember is to take precautions and not to contact with the blood of a stranger.

Preicteric period

The preicteric period is the initial stage in the development of the disease. Most often it lasts from 4 to 7 days, in rare cases it can reach 3 weeks.

For this period are characteristic:

1. Disruption of the bowels (can be observed as constipation and diarrhea);
2. Mood swings;
3. Severe irritability;
4. Rapid pulse;
5. Insomnia.

Icteric period

The icteric period of hepatitis C is the second stage in the development of the disease. It lasts for 1-3 weeks. Symptoms of the disease, as a rule, persist. In some cases, they may become more pronounced.

The icteric period differs from the preicteric only by the presence of vomiting and an enlarged spleen. Possible severe weakness and fatigue.

Symptoms

Given the fact that hepatitis C incubation period is very long, its first symptoms begin to manifest only after 7-9 months from the time of infection. There are cases when even the acute form of the disease is asymptomatic, which is observed quite often. And this is fraught with the transition to the adoption of the disease of a chronic course.

The main symptoms of hepatitis C are:

• stool discoloration;
• dark urine;
• joint pain;
• pruritus;
• small red rash;
• enlarged spleen and liver;
• vomiting;
• yellowness;
• sleep disorders;
• irritability;
• weakness.

Complications

The most dangerous for a person is the asymptomatic course of hepatitis C, so as to detect it on early stages  problematic. Most often, it is diagnosed already when the disease is transformed into cancer or cirrhosis of the liver, which is fatal in 90% of cases.

Hepatitis C is a life-threatening disease. If there are carriers of the hepatitis C virus in your family or you have discovered the primary symptoms of this disease, consult a doctor immediately and take all necessary tests. This will help you to identify the disease in time and begin the appropriate treatment, which will lead to positive results.

Author: Ekaterina Skryagina,
  specifically for the site site

Useful video on how the hepatitis C virus is transmitted.

Not everyone knows how long the incubation period is in the presence of hepatitis C. From the moment of infection until the first symptoms appear, it can take six months or just a few weeks. This disease has a great social significance due to the fact that treatment is effective only in 15-25% of cases. Hepatitis C is a formidable disease that often leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer, as well as the premature death of patients. What are the causes, symptoms and treatment of hepatitis C?

Hepatitis is a group of diseases of predominantly infectious (viral) etiology, under which it is observed. According to the method of infection, there are 2 groups of hepatitis:

• with an oral infection mechanism — through water or food;
• with parenteral infection - upon contact with infected blood or other body fluids.

The latter group includes hepatitis C, B and D. Common hepatitis A belongs to the first group, it is a less dangerous form of liver inflammation. Hepatitis C is a viral anthroponotic disease that has a predominantly artificial pathogen transmission mechanism and affects the liver. Many patients go to the doctor only when necrosis begins in the tissues of the organ.

Hepatitis B has a lot in common with hepatitis C. The latter in most cases has a chronic course and gradually leads to liver failure, which is the main cause of death of patients. Every year more than 3 million new cases of this disease are detected. Worldwide, about 150 million people are infected with the hepatitis C virus. Most often the disease develops in adults. The source of infection are the sick and carriers. Patients have smaller epidemiological value.

Why does inflammation develop?

The disease has viral etiology. The causative agent has the following properties:

• contains RNA;
• able to change;
• can live for 4 days in the environment at room temperature;
• has sizes from 30 to 70 nm.

If hepatitis A develops against the background of the use of contaminated water, fruits and vegetables, then in the case of hepatitis C, the infection occurs differently. Allocate natural and artificial transmission of viral particles. Natural methods of infection: sexual, domestic and mother-to-child transmission of the virus. The disease belongs to polysystem, therefore contact with any body fluids of the patient (sperm, blood, saliva) is dangerous. The sexual way of infection is realized during unprotected sexual contact. The use of a barrier method of contraception significantly reduces the risk of infection.

The virus can enter the body in a household way - when using household items or personal belongings of the patient (washcloths, toothbrushes, razors, towels). Vertical infection is called the transmission of the virus to the child during gestation or during childbirth. Currently, all pregnant women are screened for the presence of antibodies to the hepatitis C virus. The dose sufficient to infect a healthy person is 0.0001 ml. Artificial infection routes are most important. The pathogen can be transmitted through blood. This happens when transfusing whole blood or its components (plasma, red blood cell or leukocyte mass), as well as using non-sterile instruments. The disease is widespread among drug addicts.

Infection can occur when performing tattoos or body piercing or during medical procedures (tooth extraction, diagnostic procedures).

The duration of the incubation period

If the duration of the incubation period of hepatitis A varies from 2 to 6 weeks, then with hepatitis C this value can reach 6 months. Often, patients go to the doctor only a few months after infection. An experienced physician should know the minimum and maximum value of the incubation period for hepatitis C. The minimum incubation period is 2 weeks and the maximum is 180 days.

Sometimes this makes it possible to determine the time of infection, to establish the source of infection and the mechanism of virus entry into the body. Most often, the first signs of the disease appear 1-2 months after infection.

Term incubation hepatitis  B ranges from 2 to 6 months. At this time, the virus actively multiplies. When it enters the bloodstream, it enters the liver cells (hepatocytes). Kupffer's cells also suffer. In the human body, so-called pseudoviruses are formed. They are practically not recognized by the cells of the immune system, and this contributes to the long asymptomatic course of the disease.

Symptoms and treatment of the disease

The symptoms of hepatitis C are most often non-specific. In acute form, the following symptoms may occur:

• pain in hypochondrium on the right;
• lack of appetite;
• nausea;
• general malaise;
• weakness.

This is an anicteric period. In some patients, the early signs are runny nose, sore throat and cough. In the icteric period, the color of the urine may change (it becomes dark), the feces become discolored. The skin becomes yellow. During the period of jaundice the state of health improves. The icteric period can last up to 4 months. In the chronic form of the disease, the symptoms are less pronounced, jaundice is rarely observed. Nausea, vomiting, bloating, loss of appetite.

Not everyone knows when to donate blood for the presence of antibodies to the hepatitis C virus. This is done six months after the infection. The survey should exclude other forms (hepatitis B, A and E). Hepatitis C treatment involves following Pevzner's diet No. 5, avoiding alcohol, and using Interferon and Ribavirin. Therapy for chronic hepatitis depends on the type of virus. Self-medication in the presence of viral hepatitis is unacceptable.

Hepatitis C is a dangerous disease. Timely and proper treatment  may result in recovery or suspension inflammatory process  in the liver.

One of the dangerous viruses is hepatitis. Now the most common type of hepatitis has become C. For many people do not even realize that they are carriers of this disease.

Most often, hepatitis C is the cause of many chronic liver diseases of various kinds. There are many types of hepatitis. One person can have several subtypes of the HCV virus at the same time. They can change the hepatitis C virus. Subspecies can progress the disease. At room temperature, the virus can persist for up to 4 days.

How does the infection occur?

Most often, people become infected through blood transfusions. Now all donors are required to donate blood for the presence of hepatitis C virus, and this type of infection has faded into the background. Highly dangerous disease  hepatitis C, its etiology is extensive. The most common method of infection remains infection during tattoo and piercing. Due to poorly sterilized instruments, it is very easy to catch a virus.

Rarely, but sometimes an infected mother can transmit a disease to the fetus, at about 5%. Prevent infection is impossible. Most often, children are born healthy breastfeeding with hepatitis C is recommended to cancel.

Many people believe that it is most likely to get this disease sexually. But in fact, the probability of this is only 5% in the case of unprotected sex. You can catch the virus using the patient's personal hygiene supplies. Approximately 30% of patients with the virus never discovered the cause of the disease.

You need to know that hepatitis C is not transmitted by airborne droplets. You can become infected only through blood. Therefore, you need to remember that the patient does not infect through hugs or kisses, through coughing, handshakes.

Hepatitis C Incubation Period

Viral hepatitis C - dangerous and common infection  the liver. It is a chronic form of the disease, and often it goes into liver cancer and cirrhosis. Chronic disease occurs in 70% of patients. When combined with other viruses, the disease can be complicated.

Like other viral diseases, hepatitis has an incubation period. This is the time that passes from the moment of human infection to the first signs. Signs of the disease appear after the incubation period. In different forms of hepatitis, the incubation period is different. The duration of this period depends on how long it takes the virus to begin to multiply in the human body.

The incubation period for hepatitis C can range from 2 weeks to 6 months. Hepatitis C is dangerous in that it can destroy the liver and show no external symptoms. In many patients, this form of hepatitis is asymptomatic for many years. And the man does not even know about his illness. But at the first symptoms it may be too late.

Acute hepatitis C begins in the form of the usual signs of malaise, so to speak without the icteric period. At this time, a person loses his appetite, feels headaches, fatigue, pain in muscles and joints, runny nose. Then follow the second stage of the disease. The first sign is dark urine. She looks like a dark beer. Then the mucous eyes, mouth, yellow skin on the palms. Sometimes fecal discoloration occurs. Clinical examination is needed, hepatitis C needs treatment.

Acute and chronic hepatitis may appear on its own. You need to be alert if there is constant fatigue, a change in the sleep cycle, daytime sleepiness, reduced appetite, vomiting, and bloating. Jaundice appears very rarely. Usually for the detection of RNA of the hepatitis C virus is necessary to do a blood test (ELISA).

Hepatitis C virus is a very serious disease. And if there are reasons to worry about infection, you should immediately contact your doctor. It is very important to detect the disease in time.

Hepatitis B is an inflammatory viral disease that affects the liver. Today it is one of the most frequent pathologies of the body. According to statistics in the world about 350 million people are carriers of the virus. The danger of an illness lies in its consequences. This type of hepatitis is the main cause of cirrhosis.

There are two forms of illness: acute and chronic. In the first case, the incubation period is short, the symptoms appear soon after infection and has a pronounced character. The second type arises due to the acute form or appears without this phase. Chronic form can passively (absolutely asymptomatic) or very rapidly with the transition to cirrhosis.

The disease virus is very resistant to the environment. It is distributed by parenteral route.

You can become infected as a result of:

• sexual intercourse;
• dental treatment;
• injection;
• tattooing the skin;
• manicure procedures;
• blood transfusions;
• shave;
• surgical intervention;
• in case of accidental skin injury;
• during childbirth.

Although the virus is found in the majority of human fluids (saliva, sweat, tears, urine, blood), it is almost impossible to get infected in everyday life. It is impossible to get infected through dishes and other things.

Incubation period

The duration of this period depends on many factors. In particular: the dose of infection, the state of the immune system and the person's age. For example, with blood or plasma transfusions, the amount of infection will be significant. The incubation period in this variant will be small - about two months.

In the case of parenteral manipulations, the incubation period lasts about 6 months. In infants, this time period is from 3 to 4 days, in older children - more than three months. In adult patients, this term lasts from 2 months to six months. The clinical symptoms of the disease at this time are completely absent, but at the end of the incubation a high amount of hepatocellular enzymes is found in the blood.

The incubation period has three phases:

1. Adaptation. This stage begins as soon as the virus has entered the body. But, penetrating into the new environment, some of the bacteria die, so the number of pathogen cells at this stage is significantly reduced. It is impossible to make a diagnosis at this time, since during this incubation period no manifestations are observed at all.
2. Reproduction. With blood, the virus penetrates the liver, infects the hepatocytes and begins to multiply actively. In the process of division, it changes the structure of the liver tissue. As a result, the body begins to perceive its own cells as foreign. The immune system is taken to attack them, as a result, hepatocytes are destroyed.
3. Dissemination. Distribution - the last incubation stage. The virus spreads to other organs. As a result, the metabolism is disturbed, the first specific symptoms of the disease appear.

The disease has several stages. Pathology begins with an incubation period. At this time, the virus actively multiplies and infects the liver tissue. The next stage is prodromal (anicteric). At this time, the first symptoms begin to appear. But they resemble signs of a cold.

Most often observed:

• loss of appetite;
• general weakness;
• lethargy;
• nausea;
• heat;
• headache and muscle pain;
• various respiratory manifestations.

The next period is jaundiced.

At this time, the patient's urine changes color: from light to dark. The sclera, the skin and all the mucous membranes begin to turn yellow.

As the disease progresses, the symptoms of intoxication are significantly reduced, and the patient’s general condition improves. Possible small pain sensations  or heaviness in the liver region.

Treatment

Hepatitis therapy is aimed at destroying the virus, alleviating the patient’s condition, eliminating intoxication and liver damage. The method of treatment depends on the stage of the pathology and the condition of the patient. First of all, a strict diet is prescribed to the patient. The patient should not eat fatty, spicy, and salty foods.

The therapy of the chronic form is the use of antiviral medications of the alpha interferon and nucleoside group (lamivudine, adefovir). Treatment lasts mainly from 6 months to several years. In addition, with hepatitis B, hepatoprotectors and drugs are used to strengthen immune system. But in the chronic form of the disease, complete healing occurs very rarely.

With timely treatment started, 80% of patients lead a full life to old age.

But they can not be donors, and are constantly forced to use drugs.

Hepatitis B is a complex disease. Do not self-medicate, inaccurate and questionable methods can lead to fatal consequences. There is no easy and very fast treatment for hepatitis B. Only a doctor can correctly diagnose and prescribe the right medication.

People who are familiar with a disease such as hepatitis C are aware of the long duration of the incubation period by hearsay - this is the whole danger of illness.

The incubation period is the time period that lasts from the moment of infection to the onset of the first symptoms of the disease.

But there are also known cases when the incubation period is several months or even up to a year, in this case we are talking about the chronic course of the disease, which is observed in 60% of cases. But, as a rule, this period averages 2 months. In this case, the person is completely unaware that he is a carrier of the virus.

It should be noted that the duration of this period of hepatitis C is similar to the incubation of hepatitis B virus group. How long the asymptomatic phase of the disease lasts depends on the type of virus and the individual characteristics of the person.

During the incubation period, the disease can develop rapidly, and the virus will multiply over time. After penetration into the body, it affects the liver, then goes into the active stage and acts on the cells of the organ.

At first, the tissues and liver cells resist hepatitis, but over time their protective function weakens, and the virus gradually destroys the liver, which subsequently leads to cirrhosis. Within a few days after its penetration into the body, the state of health and condition of the infected person gradually deteriorate.

Diagnosis and symptoms of the disease

As a rule, most often hepatitis C is asymptomatic, and patients learn about the development of the virus by chance during a blood test. But after the incubation period of hepatitis C, or during it, the following symptoms may occur:

All the symptoms described above can be compared with the development of another disease (for example, flu), and therefore only a few can immediately identify hepatitis.

In the event that you do not proceed to timely treatment, cancer or cirrhosis may develop, which occur with the following symptoms:

The methods of treatment depend on how accurate the diagnosis is.

Diagnosis of the disease is carried out for:

No matter how long the incubation period lasts, timely diagnosis and preventive measures taken are important for the development of the disease.

The patient has to do the primary diagnosis independently, as the disease often is latent. But the first symptoms can be pain on the right side under the rib, fatigue and loss of appetite. The doctor for primary diagnostics can give direction to the analysis of blood and ultrasound of the abdominal cavity.

After conducting these studies, the doctor prescribes treatment for the patient. Liver biopsy is one of the modern ways to detect the presence of hepatitis C in the body. Also, thanks to the conduct of this procedure, you can make a forecast of the further course of the disease.

In order to identify the disease, you can conduct a rapid test.

It can be done both at home and in the laboratory. The principle of its operation is simple and similar to a pregnancy test. On the test strip you need to drop a small amount of  blood, and if there are two stripes on it - then the virus is present in the blood, if it is missing, only 1 dash will appear on the strip.

Features of the course of the disease in the female half

The organisms of women and men are in many ways different, and therefore the disease is different in them. Thus, with the development of a disease such as hepatitis C, women have distinctive features:

As mentioned above, the incubation period of hepatitis C in women lasts less than in men. But no matter how many days this phase lasts, it is always dangerous for humans. differ depending on the stage of the disease. The primary symptoms of the disease include the following:

Symptoms can appear even a few days after infection. It is worth noting that fatigue and lethargy in women is much less common than in men.

Once in the weaker sex the acute phase becomes chronic, inflammation in the body is less pronounced than in men.

It is not easy to identify the symptoms of hepatitis C in women during pregnancy, as they are easily confused with toxicosis. The disease can also be transmitted to a child who passes through the birth canal during birth.

The signs of the disease in pregnant women include the following:

• vomiting;
• an increase in the size of the liver and spleen;
• asthenic syndrome;

It is worth noting that the disease is transmitted through blood, and therefore it is necessary to avoid contact with an infected person's blood-to-blood.

Early diagnosis of the disease

Of course, early diagnosis of the disease allows you to quickly begin treatment and eliminate the symptoms of the disease. But it is worth noting that diagnosing a disease in its early stages is a difficult task. The complexity of the procedure is also in its high cost, and many people cannot afford to conduct such a costly survey. If these analyzes were included in preventive examinations, then the disease could be diagnosed at early stages.

Polymerase chain reaction is the most sensitive test that can be used to diagnose a disease. It is possible to detect the presence of a virus in the blood even at the initial stage of the development of the disease (on average, at 2-3 weeks).

But, despite the development of modern technologies, today it is only occasionally possible to identify the development of hepatitis at the initial stage due to the asymptomatic course of the disease. All this is explained simply - a person feels good, and does not see any reason to make an expensive analysis, since he may turn out to be negative. As a rule, those tests that are performed free of charge cannot detect the presence of the virus at an early stage.

  It is important for a sick person to make a diagnosis in time, and for this you need to constantly undergo scheduled examinations, visit a doctor if any alarming symptoms appear. It is worth noting that the early detection of the disease can cure an infected person.