Disclaimer

What is viral hepatitis? Can one be cured and recover from the disease?

Viral hepatitis is inflammation of the liver from certain viruses. Although a number of viruses can affect the liver, hepatitis A, B, C, and D viruses are the most common. All of these viruses can cause acute liver disease, but only patients with HBV and HCV can develop chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. Occasionally, HDV can also cause chronic liver disease in those individuals who are already infected with HBV. Chronicity of HBV is related to the age of acquisition. Most individuals acquiring HBV at a young age will become chronic carrier, while most adults with acute HBV, will recover from HBV. In contrast, the majority of patients with acute HCV will become chronically infected with 25-30% spontaneously clearing the virus.

Is it safe to travel with a person who has hepatitis C? If so, what precautions should be taken in traveling?

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is not transmitted by casual contact. Therefore, traveling with someone with HCV infection does not require any special precautions.

My mother was diagnosed with hepatitis C. Is it possible for me to give her part of my liver, and how compatible would I be? Also, if I am a good donor, is it dangerous to have only part of a liver?

Living related donation for liver transplantation is possible at specialized transplant centers. The process of evaluation for living related liver donors are quite rigorous, requiring medical, surgical, and psychological evaluations. There is a small but real risk of complications or death for the donor, which needs to be understood by donors. All these issues should be discussed in detail with the highly specialized experts at a transplant center who have significant experience in living related liver donor transplantation.

I contracted HCV 7 or 8 months ago. I have heard that because I contracted it recently, the infection is easier to treat and treatment can be 100% effective. Is this true?

Recent data suggest that treatment of HCV early after acquiring it is associated with a significantly better response rate to anti-HCV treatment.

After 6 months of interferon injections, HCV on my polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was negative. Is there a risk that HCV can be reactive on the PCR test once again?

This depends on the genotype of HCV that you are infected with. For patients with HCV genotypes 2 and possibly 3, relapse rates are low and 6 months of treatment suffices. For patients with HCV genotypes 1 and possibly 4, relapse rates after 6 months of therapy are high. In the latter scenario, a full 12-month course of therapy should be given.

I was diagnosed with hepatitis C in l990 and completed two series of interferon treatments. I have been told that I am not eligible for a transplant because of my HCV infection. I have read about a product called Mega Silver that contains silver particles and is claimed to boost the immune system greatly and reduce or rid HCV from the system. Can you tell me what you know about this product and if you think it is worth a try?

Any product used for treatment of HCV should undergo rigorous assessment for safety (Is there harm with treatment?) and efficacy (Does it work?). I am not aware of any rigorous study assessing the safety and efficacy of this agent that would provide strong evidence supporting its use.

When I married my husband, he had been diagnosed with hepatitis C for 20 years and was in stable condition. We were advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and our doctor that there would be no need to practice safe sex. Three years later, after two bouts in a 2-week period of what I thought was the "flu," I went for an insurance screening a couple months afterward and found that I had contracted hepatitis C. Don't you think the CDC and doctors should NOT advise patients like this?

Although the risk of transmitting HCV sexually is small (<5%), it is not zero. This risk seems to increase with high-risk behaviors such as having multiple sex partners. Reducing these high-risk behaviors and multiple partners have been recommended. Given that there are no proven effective strategies (short of abstinence) to prevent sexual transmission of HCV, it is generally left to the couple to decide, with the knowledge that the risk is quite low.

How is hepatitis C managed? What are sexual problems associated with hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C management include establishment of chronicity (by documenting presence of virus for more than six months), stage of liver disease (by liver biopsy) and candidacy for treatment (by determining HCV genotype, absence of contraindication to treatment, reviewing the side effect profile of treatment etc.). All of these issues are related to different parts of HCV management.