What is Hepatitis C? Hepatitis C, a viral disease that destroys
liver cells, is the most common blood-borne infection in the
United States. Approximately 36,000 new cases of acute hepatitis
C infection occur each year in the United States, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
People with acute HCV infection may exhibit such symptoms as
jaundice, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, and
diarrhea. However, most infected people exhibit mild or no
symptoms. About 85 percent of people with acute hepatitis C
develop a chronic infection. Chronic hepatitis is an insidious
disease whose barely discernible symptoms can mask progressive
injury to liver cells over 2 to 4 decades. An estimated 4
million Americans are infected with chronic hepatitis C,
according to CDC. Chronic hepatitis C often leads to cirrhosis
of the liver and liver cancer and causes between 8,000 and
10,000 deaths a year in the United States. It is now the leading
cause of liver cancer in this country and