Read condition-specific symptoms and clinical context for Hepatitis C virus. A bloodborne liver virus that is often silent and now usually curable.
Hepatitis C virus is spread through contact with infected blood, most often through unsafe injections and medical procedures, unscreened transfusions and shared injecting equipment. WHO states that around 30% of infected people clear the virus within six months without treatment, while the rest develop chronic infection. Antiviral medicines can cure more than 95% of people, and there is no vaccine.
CDC states that many people with hepatitis C have no symptoms and do not know they are infected; when symptoms occur with an acute infection they can appear any time from 2 weeks to 6 months after exposure.
Possible symptoms: Yellow skin or eyes (jaundice); Dark urine or clay-coloured stools; Feeling tired; Fever; Loss of appetite; Nausea, stomach pain or vomiting; Joint pain.
CDC states that testing, not symptoms, is how hepatitis C is diagnosed, and that a person without symptoms can still pass the virus on. There is no vaccine, so prevention focuses on avoiding blood exposure.
WHO states that around 70% of infected people develop chronic infection, and that it is often undiagnosed because it stays symptom-free until serious liver disease develops decades later.
No separate symptom list is shown for chronic hepatitis C. CDC states that symptoms of chronic infection can take decades to develop and are typically the same as those of acute infection, and that serious signs of liver damage might not show up for 20 years or more. WHO reports that among people with chronic infection the risk of cirrhosis ranges from 15% to 30% within 20 years.
Chronic infection is identified by testing and followed clinically. WHO reports that direct-acting antivirals can cure more than 95% of people treated, while access to diagnosis and treatment remains low.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.