title: Can chronic hepatitis C resolve spontaneously? Case report and review.
abstract: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is variably prevalent around the world and is usually a blood-borne infection. Most patients will have subclinical infection at the onset, but patients who develop acute hepatitis can spontaneously clear the virus upon immune activation. Up to 80% of CHC patients will progress to chronic infection. CHC is unlikely to clear spontaneously. This article describes two female patients with transfusion-acquired CHC diagnosed by both positive hepatitis C virus (HCV)-Ab and hepatitis C virus-polymerase chain reaction (HCV-PCR) tests. Both patients cleared the infection spontaneously after more than 5 and 25years of CHC infection, respectively.
authors.affiliation: King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hisham O
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Akbar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D019562:Viral Load