This is the reason that people are not aware of the fact that they have been infected with the virus of Hepatitis C. The virus is only detected when the person visits a health care practitioner for a medical examination.

It is a serious issue and one needs to keep oneself fully informed about this virus in order to save health and getting affected from the serious side effects.

A) What is Hepatitis C?

As already mentioned Hepatitis C is an infectious virus. This virus is transmitted in to the blood; it travels across and then destroys the liver. It is sad but true that about 240,000 Canadians are infected by this virus and only a fraction of this population is aware of the infection. Young people are more prone to this virus attack.

B) How to know about the attack?

It is very important to know about the attack and its symptoms. Once the person is attacked by this virus, there are 100 per cent chances that the patients suffer from jaundice, dark urine, loss of appetite, and nausea or abdominal pain. A combination of these symptoms may also be experienced by the patient.

This is a disease of the liver caused by Hepatitis C virus. The condition is thereafter transmitted as soon as the blood from an infected individual enters the body of another person who is not infected.

C) The disease can spread in the following ways:

- Sharing needles

- From an infected mother to the unborn child

- Blood transfer from an infected donor

- Sharing personal items such as razors

- Tattooing and Body piercing

Unfortunately, Hepatitis C has no vaccine. However, there are certain blood tests available to check this disease. You need to contact a health care practitioner for a blood test soon if you have recently received blood from an infected donor. The same applies to a situation where you have injected illegal drugs.

You should also consider speaking to your medical practitioner if you have been on long-term kidney dialysis or if you have been defected having a liver disease.

All the blood tests conducted would be anti- Hepatitis C.

Prevention is the best thing to practice as there is no vaccination for Hepatitis C. You need to keep tabs on the symptoms of this disease constantly in order to detect it at early stages and start the treatment as early as possible.

D) Here are some of the signs and symptoms to look for in order to detect the presence of infectious virus Hepatitis-C:

- Fatigue; Loss of appetite

- Nausea

- Diarrhea; Vomiting

- Headache

- Yellowing of the skin; Yellowing of whites of the eye

- Clay colored stools; Dark, coffee-colored urine

- Muscle aches, Mild fever

It is likely that some people show no signs or symptoms mentioned above. Getting a check up at the slightest doubt is the best preventative measures to be taken in this regard.