Hepatitis C affects more than 3.9 million people per year in the United States. It is a liver infection that if not treated can cause serious damage to the liver. It starts as a virus and is transmitted through one’s blood or bodily fluids. The symptoms are sometimes not easily known, and many people don’t even know they have hepatitis C. There are a couple of different types of hep C, but the most common one is type 1.

None of the are worse than the other but how it is treated is the difference between the different type:

1. Early warning symptoms of hepatitis C

Many of the early symptoms of hepatitis C feel like you have the common flu. Some of the different symptoms include feeling unusually tired, muscle soreness, joint pains, fever, nausea when eating, stomach pain, itchy skin, and when you must pee your urine might be darker than usual. If you are feeling most of these symptoms you should go to your doctors and get tested immediately.

2. New hepatitis c treatments

Treating hepatitis c depends on a case to case basis. There are 6 different genotypes of hepatitis C so depending on which genotype you have your doctor may prescribe you something different than what someone else might be prescribed. There are only two FDA approved medications that can treat all six genotypes which are Mavyret and Epclusa. Your doctor may prescribe you with more than one depending on the genotype you have.

3. Causes of hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus. This can be transmitted through blood or bodily fluids from one person to the next. You can get hepatitis c from sexual intercourse, but it is not common. Drug users who share needles have a really high risk of getting hepatitis C.

4. Liver inflammation

Liver inflammation is one of the effects you get from hepatitis C, which can lead to scarring or fibrosis. Hepatitis C causes your liver cells to die and can shut down your liver function. When the liver cells die the inflammatory cells come into play and can enlarge your liver by 60 percent. Most people don’t even know that their liver is infected until they get it checked by their doctor.

5. Fatigue

Over 50 to 70 percent of people who contract hepatitis C are affected by fatigue. There is really no scientific reason why people experience fatigued, but some people believe it is because the body is fighting an incurable disease every day. This leads to your body working harder than it needs to without no results to show. If you have these symptoms you should plan for your daily activities and make sure you rest when you are on medication.

6. Joint pain

Joint pain can be caused by hepatitis C and goes right along with fatigue symptoms. The virus can cause arthritis and is usually one of the first signs that you have hepatitis C.

7. Hep c genotypes

There are 6 genotypes of hepatitis C, labeled 1 through 6. Then there are subtypes for each type of hepatitis C. People usually are labeled as having type 1 through type 6, but sometimes people can be diagnosed with multiple subtypes as well. These cases are called mixed infections. Treating each mixed infection depends on the specific subtype of hep C that you have.