Hepatitis C is a condition of the liver that is caused by the HCV virus. This virus can be spread through contaminated blood, semen, or other bodily fluids. A speck of blood can contain a large number of virus particles that aren’t easy to kill. One cannot contract the disease from casual contact, kissing, breathing, or sharing food. It is treated with antiviral medication, and in a few cases, this condition can be completely eradicated. It is a common disease and can spread easily.

There are several symptoms of hepatitis C that one can experience. These may range from mild to severe

Acute hepatitis C symptoms
Most people do not develop symptoms and if they do, they show up only after a minimum of two weeks. This can facilitate the spread of the disease as the affected person has no knowledge about it and thus will not make any attempts to stop the transmission.

In cases where symptoms show up, they are one or more of the following:

• Fever
• Weakness and tiredness
• Pain in the abdomen
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea and Puking
• Colored and dark urine
• Stools that are clay-colored
• Jaundice
• Joint pain

Chronic hepatitis C symptoms
Acting stealthier than active hepatitis C, the chronic version of this disease is diagnosed during a blood test or blood screening.

The only mild symptoms this disease can cause are

• Fatigue that lasts an extended period of time.
• Having a permanent feeling of depression.

Diagnosis
Here is how hepatitis C is diagnosed. Doctors generally diagnose this condition with the help of blood tests.

First, the doctor performs a blood test to look for antibodies belonging to hepatitis C in the blood. If this test returns positive, it means that the patient has suffered from this disease at some point. But it does not necessarily mean that it is an ongoing infection.

Once the blood test proves that there are hepatitis C antibodies in the blood, a second blood test called the hepatitis C RNA test will have to be taken. This test analyzes the blood to determine if the virus is still present in it.

If the second blood test returns positive, a third blood test is taken and is called the genotype test. This test determined the type of hepatitis C, as there are more than six types. Identifying the type can help in choosing the appropriate treatment for the disease.

If the patient has had this disease for a long period of time, a doctor might recommend running a few more tests to look for the damage caused by the hepatitis C virus. This includes examining the severity of the damage to the liver. These tests mostly include blood tests and ultrasound scans. Rarely, a liver biopsy is done in order to gather the information that couldn’t be received through the blood tests and ultrasound scan reports.