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HCV

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes, like other hepatitis viruses, infectious liver inflammation. Diagnosed during its acute state of infection, HCV is curable in up to 80% of the cases. However, for 70-80% of the infected people the disease leads to chronic infection. Now, the virus can cause in a time span of 20 to 30 years liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma in the host.

The Word Health Organization reported in 2000 that approximately 170 million people word wide (3% of the world population) are infected with hepatitis C. About 80% of the newly infected people develop a chronic infection. In 10-20% of the chronic infected people develop liver cirrhosis and 1-5% of the chronically infected people develop liver cancer. The cause how HCV induces the development of hepatocellular carcinoma is yet unknown.