When someone discovers that they are infected with the Hepatitis C virus it is in itself a shock, but the things that they must deal with from then on can be equally upsetting. There is the treatment regime that will follow the confirmed diagnosis and the need to ask people who you are close to help while you go through what can be an unpleasant treatment period that can last anywhere from twelve weeks to the better part of a year. That can be adjusted to since any illness requires treatment. The thing that the Hepatitis C sufferers have more difficulty in getting used to is the stigma that is connected to this particular disease.

Unlike many illnesses where the person who is unwell gets lots of sympathy, when people hear that you have Hepatitis C the first thing they seem to think is where did you get it and can they catch it. It is more uncomfortable to go to your boss, when treatment is about to start and ask for time off, or at least a lesser workload when you have to explain why you are asking. The problem is that too many people think that Hepatitis C comes only from dirty or shared syringes. Then so many people who think they are experts on the causes of hepatitis automatically decide that you must have some secret drug habit that you are now paying for by have contracted hepatitis. Others think that promiscuity is the reason for the spread of the Hepatitis C virus. But since this infection is spread only through blood-to-blood transmission that is very unlikely.

Then when you try to explain the way you contracted the infection they make you feel like your telling them a story as they smile knowingly, nodding their heads in agreement when their eyes say something completely different. They'll whisper amongst themselves. Telling the people you work with that they suspected for years that you had a drug habit. Work can become an uncomfortable place to be.

This stigma that is associated with having Hepatitis C can also make getting treatment very difficult. People are reluctant to go to see even their long time health care provider, fearing that they too will think lesser of them because of the infection they now carry. They are told by their physicians that perhaps they made some wrong choices and will now have to take better care of themselves if the treatments are going to be successful. Even when you can show them that the Hepatitis C has its origins in a blood transfusion received before the changes that were made in 1992, there still remains that underlying feeling.

The stigma of this disease means that people try their best to keep the information of their illness only among those who are closest to them. The problem is that even friends and co-workers when they hear the explanation of the origins of this disease still feel spooked by someone who has Hepatitis C.