HCV (hepatitis C virus) is a virus which occurs through blood to blood transmission and affects the liver, inflames it. Hepatitis C virus is transmitted usually through the use of needles or drug injecting equipment. Otherwise, there is no chance of it spreading through casual contact or through breathing in the same air. But once the virus enters in the host body, it multiplies constantly and hijacks whole of the body causing infection throughout.

Hepatitis C is the most common blood-borne disease in the US, caused mainly due to injecting drugs intravenously. It has various symptoms like a headache, fever, and nausea. But these symptoms usually do not show up in the initial phase of getting affected. It is only when the virus has hijacked the body completely that the symptoms show, and by then, it has already been turned into chronic hepatitis C. But this situation can be prevented by having safe sex and not sharing needles for drug intake.

Currently, the most successful treatment for chronic as well as acute hepatitis C is the use of medicines. Even though the medication has the common side effects like a headache and nausea, which can cause unease, the phase passes after 8 to 12 weeks. The cure rate at today’s date is near, ninety percent.

Patients who are at the initial stages are usually given a daily dosage of Mavyret: 3 tablets a day and the treatment can be done within 8 weeks. Those facing other stages of the disease may require a longer duration of treatment. Zepatier, a daily pill combination of elbasvir and grazoprevir, is known to be very effective as well.

The cure rate through these medicines is as high as 97%. Harvoni is another daily pill which is known to cure a person of hepatitis C in 8 weeks. There are various other medicines, which different doctors recommend according to the requirement, and are available as tablets, capsules or liquid. There may be so many available options for the cure of hepatitis C, but at the end, it all comes down to taking preventive measures.