Nearly 80 percent of chronic hepatitis C sufferers who have the disease for several decades will develop cirrhosis or end-stage liver disease later in life, according to a study published today in the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Researchers found that it is highly likely that people who are infected with hepatitis C (HCV) for more than 60 years will develop cirrhosis--the highest rate of hepatitis C-associated cirrhosis reported to date.
Hepatitis C is a virus that affects the liver and is spread primarily by contact with blood and blood products in transfusions and among drug users who share needles. Other common routes of transmission are infants born to HCV-infected mothers, tattoos and body piercings and risky sexual behavior. Of those who are infected, more than 80 percent will be chronic carriers of the disease. HCV can cause long-term scarring of the liver and usually presents with mild and non-specific symptoms, if any. They include fatigue, nausea, poor appetite and muscle and joint pain. It is estimated that more than 4 million Americans are now infected with HCV (more than 170 million people worldwide) and nearly 10,000 Americans die from the disease each year.
"Hepatitis C begins generally as a silent acute infection, with a fraction of the patients developing cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease or liver cancer," according to an editorial appearing in this month's journal. "Although this is a generally accepted scenario in persons infected with HCV, there remains uncertainty about the true frequency of evolution of liver disease and its rate of progression."
According to results of the study from researchers at the Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, the prevalence of cirrhosis in patients with chronic HCV increases with the duration of the disease. Nearly 80 percent of Asian patients who were infected at birth and lived with the disease for 60 years or more developed cirrhosis--a finding that researchers say can be applied to the general population because of the similarity in the way the disease progresses in all ethnic groups.