The diagnosis of hepatitis C needs to be determined by a comprehensive analysis of epidemiological history, clinical manifestations, laboratory tests and other items.
1. Epidemiologic history: history of unclean blood transfusion or use of unclean blood products, history of unsafe injections, tattoos and other blood exposure within six months.
2. Clinical manifestations: there may be no obvious symptoms in the early stage of infection, or there may be generalized weakness, depression, nausea, pain in the liver area, and in a few cases there may be low-grade fever, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, jaundice, and so on.
3. Laboratory examination: the alanine aminotransferase can be mildly and moderately elevated, but it can also be normal. There are positive results of anti-hepatitis C virus or anti-hepatitis C virus RNA antibody test within the last six months.
Hepatitis C can be diagnosed by having three positive epidemiologic + clinical manifestations + laboratory tests, or two positive clinical manifestations + laboratory tests. If hepatitis C virus infection is suspected, it is recommended to visit a hospital promptly.