Is it serious to have HCV?« Back to Questions List

HCV is a relatively common infectious liver disease that has serious consequences if left untreated. If treated aggressively, the vast majority of patients can be cured.

According to current studies, without treatment, 15%-45% of acutely infected patients may spontaneously clear the virus after 6 months of HCV infection, and the remaining 55%-85% of acutely infected patients may become chronic HCV or virus carriers. In the chronic HCV stage, if patients do not undergo antiviral treatment, they may develop cirrhosis and liver cancer, when the disease is more serious and can affect the survival period of patients.

In view of the fact that there are more patients who become chronic after HCV infection, once HCV infection is detected, whether it is acute or chronic infection, and regardless of whether there is damage to the liver or not, whether it is a virus-carrying status, it is necessary to carry out active antiviral treatment, which can usually be applied to interferon combined with ribavirin or to new oral antiviral drugs. After active and effective treatment, most patients can be completely cured and will not develop cirrhosis or liver cancer.