Hepatitis C is an infectious disease of the liver that can cause miserable symptoms including fatigue, lack of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Caused by a virus, hepatitis C affects about 200 million people worldwide. In the U.S. alone, one to two percent of the population is infected. Not only can this infectious disease cause scarring of the liver, cirrhosis, and eventually liver failure, but a significant number of people with hepatitis C also develop sometimes fatal liver disease or cancer.

Executive Summary
The Hepatitis C Trust held a web-based survey from April 2006 to September 2007 that asked about people’s experience of anti-viral hepatitis C treatment and in particular how they felt up to 3 years after finishing the treatment. 500 respondents completed the questionnaire.

Key findings:

A group of Australian scientists have been able to cure HIV-like infections in mice by boosting their immune systems.Doctor
Marc Pellegrini from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute found a
hormone known as Interleukin 7 stimulates the body's response to an
infection, causing it to clear the virus.This process is called immune exhaustion."We
found that Interleukin 7 boosted the immune response in a pretty
profound fashion, such that animals were able to gradually clear the
virus without too much collateral tissue damage," Dr Pellegrini said.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) can breach the blood-brain barrier
and infect support cells in the brain, triggering inflammatory
changes that ultimately result in damage to neurons,
suggests new research published in the open access online
journal PLoS One. Findings from this autopsy
study may help explain how HCV infection causes neurocognitive

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Eating dark chocolate reduces damage to the blood vessels of cirrhotic patients and also lowers blood pressure in the liver, according to research presented this week at the International Liver Congress in Vienna.

http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=2910443

http://hubpages.com/hub/Valentines_Day_and_Chocolate

http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Dark-chocolate-could-be-beneficial-to-liver-patients

The Spanish research suggests dark chocolate is helpful in lowering blood pressure in the liver and also limits blood vessel damage in the area for patients with cirrhosis.

"This study shows a clear association between eating dark chocolate and portal hypertension and demonstrates the potential importance of improvements in the management of cirrhotic patients, to minimize the onset and impact of end stage liver disease and its associated mortality risks," Mark Thursz, vice-secretary of the European Association for the Study of Liver, said in a news release.