Hepatitis C - Definition Essay

Hepatitis C is a form of liver inflammation that causes rapidly developing (acute), and very often long-lasting (chronic) disease (Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine 1). Approximately 2.7 million Americans had chronic hepatitis C infection in the early 1990s and the count is expected to jump up to 10.8 million in the next 10-12 years (Hepatitis C Statistics). Chronic disease is considered to be in affect when the disease has lasted longer than 6 months. Though symptoms rarely are shown, it is still continuing to damage the liver. If symptoms do occur, the most common are fatigue, mild fever, muscl

Hepatitis C is known as the “silent killer” and is the fastest growing type of hepatitis among Americans. It has an extremely high risk of developing liver cancer. My aunt tries her best to live each day pretending it’s not really a problem and she will be perfectly fine.

Many patients are encouraged to take a natural body protein, interferon alpha. Ribravirin is an oral administration and interferon alfa-2b is in an injection form. These two medications are combined to treat hepatitis C. Combining these two has been found to be more effective than taking one by itself. The interferon does not kill the virus directly but makes the healthy cells have a less chance of being effected of the virus and has further prevention for more infection (Ribavirin and Iterferon Alfa-2B). Regular dosages of alpha interferons are normally taken three times per week but there is a pegylated alpha that increases the size and is only needed to be taken once a week. A person should never use more or less of the medicine their doctor has prescribed them or side effects will increase. In 1997 my aunt finally went to a doctor and he told her that her enzyme levels were very high and the disease was now in full bloom. She had a biopsy done and it showed minimal damage. My aunt was not given a lot of information on what to do, so she looked on the internet to become more educated. On the internet she found no cure, no hope, and no life. She heard about the interferon injection but her doctor said she couldn’t have it because of the serious side effects. A major side effect is depression and the doctor was concerned because she has st

Some topics in this essay:
Alfa-2B Regular, Encyclopedia Medicine, HIV HCV, Hepatitis Meeting, Ulcerative Colitis, Hepatitis Treatment, Statistics Chronic, HCV Devastated, Essay Hepatitis, Hepatitis B&, gale encyclopedia, gale encyclopedia medicine, encyclopedia medicine, hcv identified, blood contact, chronic disease, 2 3, doctor prescribed, medicine 1, blood transfusions, genotype 1, encyclopedia medicine 1,