Faculty Opinions recommendation of Chronic hepatitis C virus infection increases mortality from hepatic and extrahepatic diseases: a community-based long-term prospective study.
Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection leads to slowly progressive hepatic fibrosis, which may eventually lead to cirrhosis. Not to be forgotten, however, is that the natural history of chronic HCV infection extends beyond the liver as well. The impaired overall survival among those with chronic HCV infection is thus the result of an increase in both liver-related as well as non-liver-related deaths, as was recently highlighted in this unique natural history study from Taiwan, which included 19,636 participants who were followed for a mean duration of 16.2 years. This Recommendation is of an article referenced in an F1000 Faculty Review also written by Raoel Maan and Adriaan J. van der Meer.