title: Chronic hepatitis C: the virus, its discovery and the natural history of the disease.
abstract: The identification of hepatitis A and hepatitis B led to the recognition that a third virus was capable of causing blood-borne hepatitis. The pathogen responsible for this nonA, nonB hepatitis was identified in the late 1980s and subsequently named hepatitis C. Since the discovery of hepatitis C there has been a pandemic of research publications describing the natural history of the infection and it is now known that this virus can cause serious liver damage in a proportion of infected patients. It is now clear that the effects of infection with hepatitis C and alcohol misuse are additive and that there is an increased risk of hepatic complications in infected patients who abuse alcohol.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Booth
mesh_terms: D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders; D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000235:genetics; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans