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Chronic hepatitis C: the virus, its discovery and the natural history of the disease
Author(s) -
Booth J. C. L.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of viral hepatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1365-2893
pISSN - 1352-0504
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2893.1998.00115.x
Subject(s) - natural history , hepatitis , liver disease , hepatitis c virus , medicine , virology , hepatitis c , disease , pandemic , virus , immunology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , covid-19
The identification of hepatitis A and hepatitis B led to the recognition that a third virus was capable of causing blood‐borne hepatitis. The pathogen responsible for this nonA, nonB hepatitis was identified in the late 1980s and subsequently named hepatitis C. Since the discovery of hepatitis C there has been a pandemic of research publications describing the natural history of the infection and it is now known that this virus can cause serious liver damage in a proportion of infected patients. It is now clear that the effects of infection with hepatitis C and alcohol misuse are additive and that there is an increased risk of hepatic complications in infected patients who abuse alcohol.