Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a dangerous disease spreading very fast in Pakistan by greedy dentists.They are charging high amounts for dental treatments but don't use properly sterilized surgical instruments. 

The liver is the largest organ in the body, occupying the entire upper right quadrant of the abdomen. It performs over 500 vital functions. It processes all of the nutrients the body requires, including proteins, glucose, vitamins, and fats. The liver manufactures bile, the greenish fluid stored in the gall bladder that helps digest fats. One of the liver's major contributions to life is to render harmless potentially toxic substances, including alcohol, ammonia, nicotine, drugs, and harmful by-products of digestion. Old red blood cells are removed from the blood by the liver and spleen, and the iron is cycled to the bone marrow to make new ones. Damage to the liver can impair these and many other processes. People can be exposed to HCV via inadequately or improperly sterilized medical or dental equipment. Equipment that may harbor contaminated blood if improperly sterilized includes needles or syringes, hemodialysis equipment, oral hygiene instruments, jet air guns, etc. Limitations in the implementation and enforcement of stringent standard precautions in public and private medical and dental facilities is known to be the primary cause of the spread of HCV in Egypt, the country with highest rate of infection in the world.(1)

 

Experts define hepatitis as short-term (acute hepatitis) or prolonged (chronic hepatitis). In some cases, acute hepatitis develops into a chronic condition, but chronic hepatitis can also occur on its own. Although chronic hepatitis is generally the more serious condition, patients having either condition can experience varying degrees of severity.

Acute hepatitis can begin suddenly or gradually, but it has a limited course and rarely lasts beyond one or two months. Usually there are only spotty liver cell damage and evidence of immune system activity, but on rare occasions, acute hepatitis can cause severe -- even life-threatening -- liver damage.

The chronic forms of hepatitis persist for prolonged periods. Experts usually categorize chronic hepatitis as either (1) chronic persistent or (2) chronic active hepatitis.

Chronic persistent hepatitis is usually mild and nonprogressive or slowly progressive, causing limited damage to the liver. Cell injury in such cases is usually limited to the region of portal tracts, which contains vessels that carry blood to the liver from the digestive tract. In some cases, however, more extensive liver damage can occur over long periods of time and progress to chronic active hepatitis.

If damage to the liver is extensive and cell injury occurs beyond the portal tract, chronic active hepatitis can develop. Significant liver damage has usually occurred by this time. Liver cells are destroyed between the portal tract and the central veins in the liver, and progressive cell damage can build a layer of scar tissue over the liver, resulting in the condition known as cirrhosis. In such cases, the entire liver is threatened with malfunction and failure.

Most cases of hepatitis are caused by viruses that attack the liver; most are named with the letters A through G. It should be noted that the cause of hepatitis is sometimes unexplained, indicating that additional viruses have not yet been discovered.

Hepatitis C was the major cause of all cases of hepatitis resulting from transfusions and most resulting from intravenous drug use. Because of blood screening, the risk from transfusions is now 1 in 10,000. It can also be transmitted through injuries in the skin. It may also be transmitted sexually. About 10% to 60% of acute hepatitis C patients develop the chronic form, which can also occur without a preceding acute stage.