Essay about HCV: The Hepatitis C Virus

The virus then enters the cytoplasm where NOD proteins bind to the RNA of hepatitis C. Then, the enzyme viral RNA polymerase transcribes a complementary -ssRNA strand(Bauman 2012). This -RNA complementary strand is synthesized to act as a template for further transcription. After repeated transcription, multiple copies of +ssRNA. +ssRNA acts as mRNA. The host cell's ribosome can translate these codons of mRNA into polypeptides(Bauman 2012). The Incubation period is 42-49 days (Bauman 2012). The body's immune system does respond but is overworked and unable to fight off HCV infection. The HCV virus replicates more rapidly. The immune system is tending to the liver damage caused by the viruses. This is why confections of HIV are quite common (Wilkinson 2009).

In time the virus can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure. Symptoms of HCV are jaundice (yellowing of the eyes), stomach pain, nausea and fatigue. The main problem is that many people don’t have symptoms until they already have some sort of liver damage. Treatment options for HCV include a combination of medications or depending on the degree of damage, a liver transplant. Given that HCV it is a blood disease that is spread through contact with an infected person’s blood, there are many ways to contract this disease. Injection drug users, physical altercations, sexual contact and mother to infant infection are just some of the ways this disease is spread.

Hepatitis C has been referred to as a "Silent Epidemic," since it usually progresses slowly over many years. Most people who are infected with hepatitis C are not aware of any noticeable symptoms for as long as one to two decades after they are infected. In fact, by the time symptoms appear, the virus has probably already begun to damage the liver. If the liver is injured and stops functioning, death will always be the outcome (Lieber). Liver failure from chronic hepatitis C is one of the most common causes of liver transplants in the United States.

The strain of genotypes is not differentiated by the severity of the disease. However, there will make a distinction in the regimen and the duration of the treatment (CDC, 2016). Treatment for chronic HCV is based on guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Associations for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The criteria of who should receive the treatment include how much the virus in the body, the strain of hepatitis C, the degree of liver inflammation or damage, comorbidity, and response to previous treatment (Infectious Diseases Society of America [IDSA], 2016). The highest priority for treatment should give to a patient with advanced fibrosis and compensated cirrhosis (IDSA, 2016). Moreover, treatment priority should provide to the patient who has a high risk of transmitting the disease from and to others, such as individuals who are active injection drug users and hemodialysis patients (IDSA, 2016).

HCV can run years or even decades and may be undiagnosed. This is the reason that until the infection progressed so far because the virus infection and low probability are causing side effects or symptoms. In many cases, we found that HCV liver injury found by regular medical

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes inflammation of the liver, eventually leading to tissue damage. Cirrhosis is the result of extensive scarring of the liver. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that HCV typically causes cirrhosis in 5 to 20 percent of infected people over a period of 20 to 30 years. Overall, cirrhosis develops 20 to 30 percent of the time. Progression to cirrhosis may be accelerated in people who are older, obese, drink alcohol, or are immune-suppressed (such as people who are coinfected with HIV).

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the Hepatitis C virus. The disease can be either acute or a chronic infection, which can be mild or a lifelong disease. This disease also is the major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. The disease is slow moving and sometimes take up to thirty years to damage the liver. In the United States there are an estimated three to four million people with the disease and are not even aware. Approximately thirty percent of the individuals infected within six months have no symptoms and will not even be aware that they have the disease. In the remaining seventy percent infected the disease will become chronic. According to statics one hundred and seventy million people are chronically infected worldwide.

Hepatitis C is an infection of the blood caused by the Hepatitis C virus. While the Hepatitis virus is widely known for damage caused to the liver, it can also cause damage to the kidneys and other body organs as well since it is an infection in the blood. Hepatitis C is both acute and chronic meaning it can last 6 months and resolve on it 's own or it can last a lifetime. The family name Hepatitis includes Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B in name while each is a completely separate disease. Each separate disease is caused from a completely different virus and transmitted in differently.

This topic is important because since Hepatitis C is asymptomatic disease it has been estimated that approximately 50% of people living with HCV are unaware that they are infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014 estimated that more than 180 million people worldwide are infected

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most widespread blood borne infection throughout the United States. It is estimated that nearly 3.2 million Americans are chronically infected (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). HCV is a leading cause of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and is an indication for liver transplant (Medscape, 2012). As a result, HCV poses a significant economic burden on the American health care system.

The expression genotype indicates diverse genetic variations or strains of Hepatitis C. The difference in genetic variations is approximately one third between the various genotypes. There are six main groups or genotypes numbered from 1 to 6. Each genotype is divided into subtypes (for example 1a and 1b) and mutations of the hepatitis C virus called quasispecies. HCV persistently mutates as it replicates. Each day more than trillion hepatitis C virions replicate. Throughout the replication process, HCV will make flaws or errors in the genetic make-up of the newly replicated viruses which will result in constant mutations. The process of persistent mutation aids the virus to escape the body’s immune response. When the major quasispecies is

Hepatitis C has been referred to as a "Silent Epidemic," since it usually progresses slowly over many years. Most people who are infected with hepatitis C are not aware of any noticeable symptoms for as long as one to two decades after they are infected. In fact, by the time symptoms appear, the virus has probably already begun to damage the liver. If the liver is injured and stops functioning, death will always be the outcome (Lieber). Liver failure from chronic hepatitis C is one of the most common causes of liver transplants in the United States.

A great majority of people in the world who live in a poor area where there is impoverished sanitation have been infected with this virus. Hepatitis B virus (HBV), a sexually transmitted disease, disseminated by contact with infected body fluids, semen, and blood. Conceivably, studies have shown that the HBV virus between humans and apes pinpointed evidence of division between human genotypes A-E from the viruses sampled from apes and human genotype F. This historical analysis enhanced the ideology of intergenotypic recombination and intricate patterns of nucleotide substitution caused by differential selection pressures (Fares, Holmes, 2002). Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is mostly disseminated through exposure to infective blood. This type of disease escalates through direct blood contact with another person who has the disease. HCV patients have 20% of developing cirrhosis. Immunologic abnormalities in conjunction with HCV infection sometimes triggers patients to die from fulminant hepatitis (Funaoka, Kato, Komatsu, Ono, Hoshino, Kuramitsu, Ishii, Toyoshima, Massamune, 1996). Individuals who have hepatitis D obtain the infection through blood, perforation of the skin with infected needles, and unprotected sex. People who have this disease have swollen liver as a symptom. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is infected by consumption of contaminated food or water. Anal and oral sex of this disease can infect those who come into contact. There is no long-term

Therefore, a treatment regimen for HCV infection is dependent on specific viral genotype for better efficacy. Highly efficacious directing acting antivirals based therapy is also much less toxic compared to interferon therapy.

For viral genome, they used a genotype 2a subgenomic replicon SGR-JFH-1, and full-length chimeric genomes that were constructed with the use of the core-NS2 gene regions from the infectious J6 (genotype 2a) and H77 (genotype 1a) virus strains (3). As mentioned above, the advantage of using genotype 2a-derived replicons is that it efficiently replicates in Huh7.5 cell culture without adaptive mutations. This was an important prerequisite for establishment of a complete cell culture system because these mutations were found to interfere with virus full cycle production (1). However, although both subgenomic RNA and genotype 1a/2a chimera produced high titers of infectious HCV particles they were only able to replicate but not spread among naïve Huh-7.5 cells (3).