Chapter 4 – What Is Hepatitis C?

As stated in the beginning, this book is written to illustrate you see an example of a successful treatment. And at the same time, help you decide on whether or not you want to proceed with current treatments. There is ample opportunity to review most of the science and statistics related to it from other websites such as the CDC’s web page on Hepatitis C. I am going to quickly cover some hot points and the history behind HCV.

History of a modern virus

Hepatitis C was not officially its own class of virus until 1989. Pre-1989, HCV was called non-A, non-B hepatitis. It wasn’t tested for in world wide blood supplies until 1992. It is surmised that HCV came out of Asia and made it way into the US around the mid 1900’s with the onset of world war. More than likely the virus spread easily during war time since all blood transfusions were an emergency and back then the blood supply was never screened for HCV.

War veterans unknowingly brought the virus back and it entered the civilian population through blood donation programs from the 1940’s up until 1992.

Because I am all about HCV awareness, if someone you know has had some kind of blood transfusion prior to 1992, please urge them to make their way to their family doctor and get an HCV antibody test as soon as possible. If the test comes back positive, there is the possibility that they could have contracted HCV from that transfusion. The earlier you catch the disease the easier it will be to eradicate.

Symptom-less?

I have never been so disappointed by the general knowledge of something on the Internet than the information I found for Hepatitis C. If you go look at the Government’s website most symptoms they list could be from a ton of other diseases.

I only had two of those symptoms and I was told that it was probably a stomach ulcer by three different doctors! I will list the common symptoms here for your convenience…

• Tiredness
• Nausea
• Fever
• Loss of appetite
• Stomach pain
• Diarrhea
• Dark yellow urine
• Light colored stools
• Yellowing of skin and/or eye whites (Jaundice)

Now…90% of these symptoms can be caused by either bad nutrition, lack of sleep, or excessive stress and anxiety. The only one that is obvious is the yellowing of the skin and/or eyes…and once you experience this symptom you need to go see a doctor.

Yellowing means you are not expelling the toxins in your body so they are congregating in other soft parts of your body. This symptom could mean that you may be on your way to liver failure if you do not seek medical attention immediately. Jaundice can also be from a Hepatitis A or B infection which can be much more life threatening in the short term. This is especially true if you have already been infected with Hepatitis C or some other liver disease.

What is a virus?

A virus is not really a “living organism” in the sense of what we think of as something being alive. It doesn’t have any organs, nor does it breathe or have any type of locomotion. Viruses are basically inactive until they attach themselves to some type of host.

A virus consists as “sticky” coated container that holds some protein instructions inside itself. These protein instructions are made up of either DNA or RNA. These DNA or RNA structures have designed themselves slowly over millions of years to use certain parts of their hosts DNA to expand their own family if you will.

Viruses do one thing well they replicate. They do not have feelings and are not malicious in any way, they are simply chemically based machines designed to replicate and carry different types of genetic material. Some scientists speculate that viruses are the tiny chemical/genetic machines that help all living organisms on this planet evolve and change over time.

So how do you get sick from a virus? Basically a virus uses your own cell’s machinery to replicate itself several thousand times. Its genetic “programming” causes it to cannibalize all the protein material that your compromised cell has to offer. Eventually your “infected” cells weaken to the point where the new viruses erupt from the cell walls, releasing more viruses into your system.

This process will continue on and on destroying all of your cells until you die. Fortunately you have two counter active processes that usually keep your body in check. The first major factor is your army of immune system cells designed to protect you. The second major factor is that the virus will make many faulty viral copies.

Whether you recover or die from a viral infection is based on the speed at which the virus replicates, what type of cells the virus needs in order to replicate, and how your immune system has adapted to containing a certain type of virus.

This is why at a young age you are “vaccinated” for certain viruses. Vaccines are basically water or saline based preservative solutions with dead or inert (meaning they don’t have the ability to replicate) viral copies that are injected into the body. Vaccination is done before a real infection so that the immune system learns how to destroy these certain types of genetic material before a real infection occurs. This is why vaccines won’t help you if you have already been exposed.

Does Hepatitis C have a vaccine?

Not yet. I don’t know enough information about genetic engineering to tell you exactly why, but if I were to guess I would say it had something to do with the fact that HCV mutates very quickly.

The other problem is that research funding and government grants are currently being steered towards HIV research. This isn’t such a bad thing, since learning how to defeat or vaccinate against HIV will open the doors to some amazing cures to other diseases in the future.

Much of what I have read puts an HCV vaccine 10 to 20 years into the future. Unfortunately, a vaccine won’t help those who are already infected. Sounds frustrating huh?

The good news is that HIV like HCV is a RNA virus, so solving the mechanics of HIV could ultimately make solving the secrets of HCV that much easier.

What is an RNA virus?

Without getting too technical, I’m sure that you have seen a picture of DNA…it looks like a twisted rope of two ribbons intertwined with little links on the inside of the rope. RNA is basically one side of the DNA strand that carries half of the data of a normal DNA strand.

The most frustrating thing I found is since HCV is an RNA virus like HIV; it gets lumped into the same conversation as HIV. This is confusing for people who don’t have the virus to understand the differences. Just the comparison of HIV and HCV cause some people to think it holds the same scary death sentence/stigma that was bred in the eighty’s and early nineties. Neither virus is worse than the other; the only difference is that HIV is more difficult to treat.

Basically, viruses seek out certain types of cells in your body that they like to use to replicate themselves:

• Influenza A – prefers to infect soft tissue cells in mouth, throat, lungs, and nose
• HSV (Herpes Simplex) – prefers to infect nerve cells
• HCV – prefers to infect liver cells
• HIV – prefers to infect immune system cells – there in lies the problem with HIV…how do you control a viral attack with an immune system that getting attacked itself?

Viruses become more complicated over time as their genetic material makes mistakes or adapts to become more efficient.

Genotypes

All viruses DNA and RNA mutate over time and end up creating different “flavors” called genotypes.

There are many classifications of Hepatitis C which are based on its genetic makeup. Currently HCV has 6 genotypes with up to 5 subtypes. Without getting into too much of the science, all you really need to know is that each genotype is genetically different from the other and that your genotype doesn’t change over time.

I had Genotype 1b. This wasn’t the news I was hoping for since genotype 1a and 1b require a 48 week interferon treatment schedule. Genotypes 2 and 3 only require 24 weeks of the medication.

Basically, genotypes 1, 2, and 3 are more common in the United States, with genotype 1 infecting the highest percentage. So that’s enough about viruses and genetics.

What about your liver?

Go to Chapter 5 – Liver Anatomy and Liver Tests

You are reading the FREE first six chapters from 48 Weeks To Freedom – A Successful Hepatitis C Treatment Story…please send any questions you have to needmoreinfo [ at ] healhepatitisc [dot] com