The hepatitis C virus is a blood-borne virus transmitted primarily via contaminated blood. Once it has entered the human body it travels with the blood to the liver, where it initiates an inflammatory process, causing both acute and chronic hepatitis.

Acute infection with the hepatitis C virus usually produces no symptoms and goes undiagnosed. Most people with chronic infection cannot recall an acute episode of jaundice or liver disease. Some people develop nonspecific symptoms at the time of infection but do not associate these with liver disease. The major concern with the hepatitis C virus is that infection becomes chronic in a high proportion of cases. Although acute infection is usually not accompanied by manifest illness, once the virus enters a person’s body it has a very high chance of remaining there and replicating in the liver throughout the person’s lifetime.