What are the symtoms of Hepatitis C?!
Question: i want to know what signs patients of hepatitis C experienced before knowing they are infected with HCV?and what is th difference between chronic and acute hepatitis C infection? can someone having Anti HCV test negative have HCV virus?
Answers: i want to know what signs patients of hepatitis C experienced before knowing they are infected with HCV?and what is th difference between chronic and acute hepatitis C infection? can someone having Anti HCV test negative have HCV virus?
There are many "bi-directional diseases" of hcv and there are many symptoms, however, the symptoms are usually thought to be something different- many go on without a proper diagnosis.
The symptoms I had prior to knowing it was hcv were:
1. rash (spider nevi) appeared at age 9 about a year after being in a mass innoculation.
2. concentration issues
3. bones and joints hurting by age 13 (fibromyalgia)
4. seeing a psychologist at 13
5. taking several naps a day by the age of 18
6.depression
7. total body fatigue, sleeping most days about 18 hours a day and restless leg syndrome
8. hair loss
9. rash on hand, chronic for 5 years (until antiviral chemo)
10. shock like sensations through out the body
11. itchy skin off and on
At age 34 I was properly diagnosed with HCV. I also tested positive for another flavi virus, EBV in which most people have by the time childhood ends.
The difference between acute infection and chronic is simple
Acute infection is fast acting, more virulent and many end up with resolved virologic response.
Chronic is slow acting. Most folks who have contracted HCV are chronically ill with hepatitis c.
Out of 100% of the HCV community, 85% infected are chronic and 15% end up with a natural sustained response, ie, their bodies immune system was able to fight it off.
I personally do not believe in having an anti-negative test result, since I was diagnosed with that in 1994. My symptoms never went away and retested in 2001- come to find out, I was chronic active.
First a doctor will just do a liver panel blood lab.
Many who have active HCV have normal ALT and AST levels (enzymes), so the doctor is led to believe that there isn't anything wrong.
This is why a person needs to be tested for HCV regardless because like myself, I went undiagnosed and misdiagnosed for decades.
Sometimes if an infection is too new, you might have a negative anti-hcv or the virus itself is in a phase of inactivity.
Certain drugs and herbs can also interfer with true lab results.
There are even other diseases of the liver that might cause a false negative or false positive.
Many with HCV also have fatty liver (NASH).
Hope this helped!
HCV is usually associated with abv infection.
Symptoms include loss of appetite,esp distaste for cig.ig a smoker,yellow discoloration of urine, eyes,extreme malaise,mild fever,feeling all too sick. if Anti HCV test is neg, he cannot have infection. chronic means persisting infection .
That's a lot of questions!
When a person acquires hep c, a certain percentage go on to clear the virus spontaneously during the initial acute phase of hep c infection. As many as 50% will clear it in the acute phase.
If someone is still HCV+ after 6 months they would likely be classified as having chronic hep C. Even among these, some people go on to have no other complications. Smaller percentages of these chronic HCV patients will develop liver related complications (scarring, cirrhosis, cancer) and require liver transplants). Chronic HCV can take 5-30 years for the major complications to arise.
Most people who acquire Hep C show NO SYMPTOMS. Those that are symptomatic (usually 6-7 weeks after being infected) may experience:
jaundice;
chronic fatigue;
nausea or lack of appetite;
discoloured pee;
diarrhea;
joint pain;
itchy skin.
So, everyone who acquires Hep C will undergo initial acute Hep C but only those who do not clear the infection would be considered to have chronic hep c infection.
There is a window period for Hep C testing. That is, a time after you become infected before you will test positive for the antibody test. The window period for the antibody test can last up to 6 months. However, a positive antibody test means that you have come into contact with Hep C at some point. A person who clears the virus will still test positive for the antibody test. That is why a positive antibody test is followed by HCV PCR testing --- to look for parts of the actual virus. This test has a window period of 4 weeks drastically shortnening the window period for HCV.
Hope this helps