If you have Hepatitis C, your liver
is inflamed because you have been
infected with the Hepatitis C virus.
Your liver is the largest organ inside your body
and performs many important functions.
The functional parts of your liver
are called hepatic lobules.
Your hepatic lobules filter all of the blood in your body.
As your blood passes through them,
your hepatic lobules breakdown harmful substances,
remove bacteria and worn out blood cells,
and form clotting factors that control bleeding.
After a meal, your liver makes and stores
nutrients to provide your body with energy when needed.
Your liver also makes a substance called bile.
Your gall bladder stores the bile
and releases it into your small intestine
to help digest fats in the food you eat.
If you have Hepatitis C, the virus
entered your body when you were exposed
to the blood or other body fluids
from a person infected with the virus.
This could have happened from sharing a drug
syringe with an infected person.
Other ways you may have been exposed to the virus include:
having sex with someone infected by the virus;
sharing personal hygiene items, such as razors or toothbrushes,
used by an infected person; direct contact with the blood
or body fluids of an infected person;
or when a mother passes it to her baby during birth.
During the early, or acute phase, of a Hepatitis C
infection, the Hepatitis C virus enters your liver
and invades your liver cells.
Once inside your liver cells, the virus
begins to make copies of itself.
During the copying process, changes
called mutations occur frequently
in the virus' genetic material, leading
to new strains of the virus.
In response to the viral infection,
your body sends immune cells to attack both a virus
and the liver cells infected with the virus.
As a result, these liver cells become inflamed and then die.
Over time, scar tissue forms around dead and infected liver cells.
The scar tissue prevents your liver from working properly.
If you have a chronic Hepatitis C infection,
your liver contains a large amount of scar tissue,
called cirrhosis, which limits blood flow and results
in permanent shrinking and hardening of your liver.
A vaccine contains weakend, or inactive, viruses
that train your immune system to recognize and attack
certain viruses.
However, frequent mutations in the Hepatitis C virus
make it likely that you will catch
a version of the virus not contained in a vaccine.
As a result, there is no effective vaccine
for the Hepatitis C virus.
If you have Hepatitis C, your immune system
alone may destroy all of the Hepatitis C virus
is in your body.
However, most people infected with the virus
develop chronic Hepatitis C, a condition
in which your immune system is not
able to destroy all of the viruses in your body
after six months.
If you have chronic Hepatitis C and your immune system
can't get rid of the virus completely,
your doctor may prescribe a combination therapy consisting
of an anti-viral medication called Ribavirin,
and injections of Interferon, a medication that
strengthens your immune system.
These drugs are most effective against Hepatitis C
when taken together.
If you have a severe case of chronic Hepatitis C,
your doctor may recommend a liver transplant operation.