Hepatitis C virus replication

It is currently estimated that between 2.7 and 3.9 million people in the United States have chronic hepatitis C and about 17,000 new hepatitis C virus infections each year. However, up to 75% of people with chronic hepatitis C do not know they are infected.

Hepatitis C virus is a virus that affects the liver and is a leading cause of liver failure, end-stage liver disease. Hepatitis C is also a major cause of liver transplants in the United States.
When people are first infected with the hepatitis C virus, they can develop an "acute" infection, the severity of which can vary from a very mild illness with few or no symptoms to an acute inflammatory condition that is severe, even requiring hospitalization.
Acute hepatitis C infection is a short-term illness, within the first 6 months after exposure to the hepatitis C virus. Most people with acute hepatitis C infection develop chronic hepatitis C, but for unknown reasons about 15-25% of people are able to clear the hepatitis C virus on their own without need treatment.
Chronic hepatitis C is quite common, the hepatitis C virus can persist for life and progress to serious liver problems such as cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) or liver cancer.

The replication process of the hepatitis C virus takes place in a certain sequence: the hepatitis C virus approaches, attaches to the surface of the liver cell membrane and then fuses with the membrane. The hepatitis C virus corpuscle with its nucleocapsid coat enters the cytoplasm of human hepatocytes.
Next, the HCV-RNA (hepatitis C virus RNA) molecule escapes from the nucleocapsid and moves to the endoplasmic reticulum system of hepatocytes, where translation and synthesis takes place. Hepatitis C virus protein molecules, this is the replication process that synthesizes new HCV-RNA molecules. The hepatitis C virus then encapsulates, forms complete hepatitis C virus particles, and exits the liver cells.

Hepatitis C virus is transmitted from person to person through direct blood-to-blood contact. In fact, the hepatitis C virus is most commonly spread through blood transfusion, unprotected sex (to a lesser extent than other forms of hepatitis such as hepatitis B), mother-to-child transmission, drug use. intravenous drugs with dirty needles or sharing syringes with multiple people, body piercings, tattoos with improperly sterilized needles and ink, sharing personal items such as toothbrushes, knives shaving, nail clippers, trimmer... Hepatitis C virus is not spread by contact with sweat, urine, tears... with sick people.

Most patients with chronic hepatitis C infection initially have few or no symptoms for many years, or only nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, aches, abdominal pain or flu-like symptoms.

Hepatitis C can be completely cured, a patient is considered cured if the hepatitis C virus is not detected on blood tests 3 months after the patient completes treatment. Currently with new drugs on the market, the cure rate for chronic hepatitis C is up to 90%.
If hepatitis C is not diagnosed and treated in time, it can lead to liver damage, when the damage is advanced to a certain extent, the person may need a liver transplant. Therefore, actively curing the hepatitis C virus before the disease progresses is extremely important for the long-term health of the patient.

Patients infected with hepatitis C virus need to:
Quit alcohol Regularly follow-up visits according to the doctor's appointment Do not take any medicine, including over-the-counter medicines without the approval of the treating doctor. Treatment Get a full dose of hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines.