A specific virus causes hepatitis C. This virus was first identified in 1989 and is known as the hepatitis C virus, HCV, or the hep C virus. The hep C virus is a small, enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus in the Flaviviridae family. This virus travels within the blood and then is able to enter liver cells and then use those cells to make more viruses. As more and more of the hep C virus is made in the liver cells, the cells can become damaged and may even die.

 

There are a few different types of the hep C virus. Though they all cause hepatitis C, each type of the virus has a slightly different arrangement of its genetic material, in this case called RNA. The specific arrangement of the RNA is called the genotype.

 

The main hep C genotypes (also known as "subtypes") are known simply as genotypes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.