What happens in hepatitis C?
The virus that causes hepatitis C is carried in human blood. You can catch it if blood from someone with the virus gets into your body and then into your bloodstream. This could be just a tiny bit of blood. You might not even be able to see it. When the hepatitis C virus gets to your liver, it causes inflammation. You might feel ill for a while. But you might not notice any symptoms at all.[5] If you have recently been infected with the hepatitis C virus, your body may fight off the virus naturally, without any treatment. This happens in about 2 in 10 people.[3] But usually the virus stays in your body. If you have had the infection for more than six months, doctors say you have chronic hepatitis C. Chronic means an illness that is long term. Eventually (usually after many years), having chronic hepatitis C may cause scarring in your liver and stop your liver working properly.[5] If your liver isn’t working properly, all the jobs that it does are affected. So, you may not have enough e
