First of all, the hepatitis C virus is an RNA virus, which is not the same as the hepatitis B virus is a DNA virus, but both are the two main enemies that cause the liver to develop into cirrhosis and liver cancer, and the means by which these two enemies destroy the liver are similar but also different. Today, we are talking about the hepatitis C virus. The hepatitis C virus is a cunning virus, and it is also said to be an insidious killer, which actually means the same thing! It is very good at disguising itself, its coat is constantly changing, that is, the antigen is constantly mutating, which plagues our body’s immune cells to recognize only the antigen to work. When the body produces antibodies to kill the antigen, the virus has produced a new antigen to escape. This causes the virus to be difficult to clear after infection and becomes chronic. This is the main reason why the hepatitis C virus has been known to us for decades and scientists have still not found a vaccine to prevent it. The means by which the hepatitis C virus damages the liver are very varied and unlike the hepatitis B virus, which does not directly harm the liver, the hepatitis B virus does not damage the liver in the young stage of the infected patient, i.e. the immune tolerance state, and only when it enters the immune active phase, when our own immune system is clearing the hepatitis B virus, does it unintentionally cause repeated damage to the liver cells. That is why there are many chronic hepatitis B infected people who carry it for life without significant liver damage. But the hepatitis C virus can directly damage liver cells. Not only that, but the hepatitis C virus can also stimulate the immune system and provoke war and cause liver damage, just like the hepatitis B virus. The hepatitis C virus is not limited to the liver; it also alters the body’s metabolism, causing disruptions in glucose and lipid metabolism, causing hepatocyte steatosis and leading to liver cell damage. In particular, the core antigen of the hepatitis C virus “looks” very similar to a peptide antigen in the nucleus of human cells, and after infection with the hepatitis C virus, the immune system often mistakes the peptide antigen in the nucleus of human cells for the core antigen of the hepatitis C virus, causing our immune system to be “indistinguishable from the enemy “The result is that instead of clearing the hepatitis C virus, our own cells are injured, causing autoimmune damage and related diseases. Thus, chronic hepatitis C causes damage to multiple organs in our body, and rather than being a viral disease, hepatitis C is more of an immune disease. Among the virally replication-positive chronic hepatitis C virus-infected patients, the vast majority have liver histological changes; virus carriers with persistently normal liver function account for only a very small population; moreover, among those infected with persistently normal liver function, even fewer have normal liver histopathology, and most infected patients have inflammatory pathological changes in liver tissue, even with moderate-to-severe hepatitis manifestations and cirrhosis, as required by the guidelines for the prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis C This is the main basis for the need for antiviral treatment whenever there is evidence of viral replication. However, the hepatitis C virus also has a weakness. When it infects hepatocytes, it only replicates in the plasma of hepatocytes, unlike the hepatitis B virus, which “burrows” into the nucleus of hepatocytes and takes root. Therefore, with effective antiviral treatment, the hepatitis C virus can be completely eliminated from the body. Especially in recent years, there have been many direct anti-hepatitis C virus gradually introduced, the cure rate of hepatitis C has reached nearly 100%, become a completely curable disease. Recently China’s FDA has approved the listing of all oral anti-hepatitis C virus drugs, the era of hepatitis C eradication has arrived.