Module 10: Understanding Hepatitis C, Screen 10 of 11


What Hepatitis C Does to the Liver

Illustration showing how hepatitis C attacks liver (before and after)
Healthy Liver                                                Cirrhotic Liver


After a person is infected with hepatitis C, the virus enters liver cells to multiply. The person’s immune system attacks the liver cells, trying to protect the body from the virus. The liver cells become inflamed and damaged, and scar tissue develops. The more the immune system fights the disease, the more scar tissue is formed.

Some people clear the virus after the acute infection period and recover completely, and people who clear the virus on their own usually do so within three to six months. However, 80 percent to 85 percent do not clear the infection; they become chronically infected.

Even chronic infection does not lead to symptoms in most people. But some people with chronic hepatitis C develop life-threatening liver diseases, including cirrhosis and liver cancer.

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