Symptoms

Symptoms of Hepatitis C

Many people who have hepatitis C don’t have any symptoms and are unaware they have the disease. This can lead to unnecessary spread of the virus as infected people avoid taking sensible precautions.

When symptoms occur, which is often when complications have developed, they may include:

• Fatigue
• Fever
• Joint pain
• Abdominal pain
• Nausea or vomiting
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Dark urine
• Stools that are gray or lighter in color than usual
• Jaundice (yellowish eyes and skin)
• Bleeding and bruising easily
• Edema (swelling) in the legs
• Confusion and slurred speech

The main complications of chronic hepatitis C are liver failure (the liver loses its ability to fight infection and remove harmful substances from the blood), cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver cancer.