الفهرس 
Introduction
Characteristics of Hepatitis C virusOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The natural history ofHCV isvariable and difficult to define. Firstly, the proportion of infectedpatients that clear the virus in the acute phase of the infectionbroadly oscillates between 14% and 46% of cases in different studies. Also studies in patients with chronic hepatitis C have shown agreat variability in the rate of progression of the liver disease;although after 2 or more decades many infected persons developprogressive hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis, that may end in HCC, another large percentage of patients have stable disease over time. There are somewell-known host-related factors that are clearly associated with amore rapid and severe progression of the liver disease, as when it is acquired at an older age, and the metabolic syndrome complex(non-alcoholic liver steatosis, obesity and type II diabetes mellitus). Data on a more benign course in female gender are controversial. There are some reports on host genetic factors related to therisk of acute HCV infection becoming chronic and to the rate ofprogression in the chronic phase. A genome wide association study (GWAS) has identified five major single nucleotide polymorphisms spanned on 14 kb in promoter region of IL28B gene (rs12980275, rs8105790, rs12979860, rs8099917, and rs1058728) on the spontaneous clearance of HCV infection in the Egyp¬tian population infected with HCV.