Kerri: Hi my name is Kerri and I’m from the Pacific Hepatitis C Network. I’m here with Daryl for the first episode of our Hep C 101 series and today we are going to talk about what is hepatitis C. So Daryl, what is hepatitis C?

Daryl: Thanks, Kerri, and hi everyone. What is Hep C… Well I could talk a lot about the science and the mechanics of what it is and how it works but I don’t think we really need to go into that sort of depth.

I have a visual representation of what the virus looks like which you probably have seen before–maybe not. Viruses mostly look like this—this particular drawing and the-the way that the virus works is that it gets into each system through blood. It’s a blood-borne virus so it’s not passed through bodily fluids like kissing and that sort of thing. Once it does pass to another person then it begins to do what viruses like to do… and that’s make babies, basically replicate—and it does that at a rapid pace initially.

In fact, the virus can be detected and measured quite early on in the infection. So for instance if you were exposed today there may actually be copies detected in your blood if it were tested for that within a matter of just a few days that doesn’t of course mean that you have hepatitis C at that point and we will discuss what the testing and what that means in episodes that are coming.

Kerri: If you want to know more about hepatitis C you can visit our website at PacificHepC.org

Daryl: And you can call or text our helpline at 1-888-411-7578. Thanks everyone.

Kerri: See you next time!