With people’s concern for health, more and more people have begun to pay attention to and understand hepatitis B. Medical examinations have also included hepatitis B as a routine screening item, but there is another common clinical viral hepatitis whose incidence is second only to hepatitis B and which brings no less harm than hepatitis B. That is hepatitis C. According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 180 million people infected with hepatitis C worldwide. About 20-30% of patients are at risk of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer. However, hepatitis C does not get as much attention as hepatitis B. Today we’ll get to know hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is short for viral hepatitis C, a viral hepatitis caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, so what kind of harm does it bring to us? 1, we often say that hepatitis B is the “silent killer”, hepatitis C is similar to hepatitis B, the onset of more insidious, research shows that 80% of patients have few or no obvious symptoms, patients often just feel weak, some patients will also appear in the liver discomfort, loss of appetite, nausea and other symptoms. This leads to most patients being found at an advanced stage and missing the best treatment period. 2, we look at the development process of hepatitis C: from the chart we can see that as much as 80% of acute hepatitis C will be transformed into chronic hepatitis C, followed by the development of cirrhosis, liver cancer, while the chronic rate of hepatitis B is only 5%, the degree of chronicity of hepatitis C is much higher than that of hepatitis B. And 20-30% of them will continue to develop into cirrhosis and liver cancer refractory diseases. Hepatitis C is an RNA virus, prone to mutation, so there is no vaccine for the hepatitis C virus, and medical examinations do not include hepatitis C as a routine screening item, plus the symptoms are not obvious. This makes early diagnosis and prevention difficult. Hepatitis C is dangerous to humans and not easily detected, so who does it “favor”? Epidemiological studies have found that hepatitis C can be divided into two categories: post-transfusion and disseminated hepatitis C. The most common route of infection is through blood transfusions. The most common route of infection is through blood transfusions and the use of blood products. Some of the other routes of infection for disseminated hepatitis C may be related to needle tattoos, skin injuries, intravenous drug dependence, hemodialysis, mother-to-child and sexual contact transmission, etc. Therefore, the following groups of people are at high risk of hepatitis C and should pay extra attention to them. 1. People who have been transfused with blood products: Especially those who received blood transfusion and blood products (such as immunoglobulin, gammaglobulin, etc.) before 1996. However, there is a “window period” for hepatitis C, and it is not possible to screen for hepatitis C virus 100% of the time, so people with a history of blood transfusions should pay attention to screening for HCV infection. The HCV infection must be screened for people with a history of blood transfusion. 2. Intravenous drug dependents: These are mainly people who use drugs through the intravenous route and are infected by sharing syringes with each other. Among the drug-using population, the HCV infection rate among intravenous drug users is as high as 61%-64%, which is significantly higher than that of non-intravenous drug users. 3. Hemodialysis and organ transplant recipients: This is mainly due to repeated blood transfusions, poor sterilization and isolation, and cross-infection caused by not using disposable dialyzers. 4, sexual promiscuity or prostitution: sexual transmission is one of the main ways of HCV infection, and studies have found that the probability of HCV infection in people with other STDs is higher than that of the general healthy population. 5.Infants: mainly from mothers with HCV infection through intrauterine infection, and generally have a good regression. 6.Other people who have been exposed to poorly sterilized dental treatment, infusion and injection in daily life, as well as tattooing and ear piercing may also be infected with HCV. Other medical personnel such as those who have frequent contact with blood and are at risk of needle-stick infection should also be alert to HCV infection. In China, people are much less aware of hepatitis C than hepatitis B, but the dangers of hepatitis C are much greater than those of hepatitis B. We should pay attention to screening for hepatitis C. Early detection, early treatment, to avoid the “silent killer” of hepatitis C to bring us health risks.