Hepatitis C virus
is a single stranded RNA virus. It is a major cause of acute and chronic
hepatitis. The mode of infection is usually through intravenous drug abuse or
transfusion of infected blood or blood products.
Health
care workers are at risk for needle stick and other with high-risk sexual
behavior is also considered a major risk factor for HCV infection. The
incidence of new cases of acute HCV infection has sharply decreased in the
United States during the past decade, but the prevalence remains high with
approximately 2.7 million Americans infected with the virus.
Chronic HCV
infection progresses in roughly 75% of patients after acute infection by the
virus. Chronic HCV infection is slowly progressive disease and results in
severe morbidity in 20-30% of infected persons.
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