丙型肝炎

丙型肝炎is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). For a small number of people, hepatitis C, sometimes referred to as hep C, is a mild illness that clears on its own in a matter of weeks. In most cases, hepatitis C becomes a chronic condition that may progress to chronicliver failureor liver cancer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 3.5 million people in the U.S. are living with hepatitis C and there are more than 40,000 new cases of hepatitis C in the country each year. Because most children and adults with hepatitis C do not have specific symptoms, many do not realize they are infected.

HCV通过血液传播。儿童感染丙型肝炎的最常见方式是在出生过程中，如果他们出生于患有病毒的母亲。研究人员不认为母亲可以将病毒传递给子宫中的胎儿。大孩子可以通过注射药物使用或其他不安全的针头练习感染。

There are two phases of hepatitis C: acute and chronic.

• Acute hepatitis Cis a mild illness that children and adults experience within the first six months of infection. As many as a quarter of children infected with HCV clear the virus on their own without any treatment during the acute phase.
• Chronic hepatitis Cis a serious, long-term infection that develops when the virus remains in the blood. Over the course of decades, chronic hepatitis C can damage the liver to the point that a liver transplant becomes necessary.

什么are the symptoms of hepatitis C?

The majority of children with acute or chronic hepatitis C have no symptoms. As they age, the virus can cause ever-greater damage to the liver. In later stages, symptoms of hepatitis C may include:

• tiredness
• itchy skin
• dark urine
• muscle soreness
• nausea
• 食欲不振
• stomach pain
• jaundice

什么causes hepatitis C?

丙型肝炎is caused by infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The virus is passed from person to person through contact with blood infected with HCV. Mothers infected with HCV can pass the virus on to their children at birth. While this is the most common way for a child in the United States to become infected with HCV, it is unusual. A mother infected with HCV has about a 5 percent (1 in 20) chance of passing the virus to her child. About a quarter of infants infected with the virus clear it without treatment by the time they reach age 3.

Older children, especially teenagers, can contract HCV through injection drug use. The virus can spread through other forms of contact with potentially infected blood (e.g., needle stick in a health care setting). Tattoos and body piercings appear to be safe as long as they are done with sterile instruments.

什么is the liver, and what does it do?

The liver is the second largest organ in the body and it helps the body in many ways:

• the liver produces proteins that allow blood to clot normally, transport oxygen and support the immune system
• it produces bile, a substance that helps digest food
• it stores extra nutrients
• it helps clean the bloodstream of harmful substances
• it helps control blood sugar and cholesterol levels

丙型肝炎如何影响肝脏？

When infected, the liver becomes inflamed, which may cause the healthy, soft tissues in the liver to harden and scar. If not stopped, inflammation and scarring can lead to serious liver diseases such ascirrhosis of the liveror liver tumors. If the damage is severe enough, the liver may not perform all of its functions normally.

How we care for hepatitis C

TheCenter for Childhood Liver Diseaseat Boston Children's Hospital is one of the leading centers in the world for the care of children with hepatitis C. The center’s director,Maureen Jonas, MDis a national leader in the care,diagnosis and treatmentfor children with viral hepatitis. Dr. Jonas, along with her team, wrote the clinical guidelines that shape the way pediatric GI specialists and pediatricians around the country treat hepatitis C.

In addition to the standard treatments, our team of certified pediatric hepatologists is also at the forefront of treatment research, treating adolescents with newly approved treatments for adults and conducting clinical trials to help make them available to children as young as 3 years of age.

Our areas of innovation for hepatitis

Liver biopsies provide a great deal of information about the extent of damage in a child’s liver, but the procedure is invasive and can be both painful and risky. Researchers at Boston Children’s use an ultrasound-based imaging technology called FibroScan that may be able to help doctors assess liver scarring without a liver biopsy.