HCV is a single‐stranded positive‐sense RNA virus that was first
identified in 19891. HCV belongs to the Flaviviridae family and has six
major genotypes. According to the estimation of the World Health
Organization, approximately 170 million people, 3% of the world
population, are HCV positive with 3 to 4 million de novo infections each
year. Of the newly infected individuals only approx. 15‐40% will
effectively clear the virus and those who fail to do so will develop a
chronic and progressive infection. The prevalence is high in Egypt
(>10%), Asia (5‐10%) and Southern Europe (1‐2.5%) and is low in the
Netherlands (<1%). Chronic hepatitis C is a slowly progressive
disease causing no or few symptoms in the initial phase, but 10 to 20%
of the patients develop liver cirrhosis over a period of 10 to 30 years.
Patients with liver cirrhosis have an annual risk of 1 to 5% to develop
liver cancer, in particular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Unfortunately, there are still no effective vaccines or antibodies
available for the prevention of infection.http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31625/120222_Pan%2C%20Qiuwei%20-%20BEWERKT.pdf
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