The HCV infection takes years to produce symptoms in those infected with this virus. About 35% of the infected people may produce symptoms while the rest may not produce symptoms at all. Hepatitis C does not have prominent symptoms in the early stage. The infected individual may experience vague symptoms such as abdominal pain, impaired digestion, loss of appetite, lassitude, weakness, itching, etc. However, these symptoms are so common that it is hard to point towards the diagnosis of Hepatitis C. The severity of the symptoms is not directly proportional to the intensity of liver dysfunction, however.
Patients in the advanced stage may experience more severe symptoms such as yellow sclera, sometimes paleness (whiteness) of eyes, loss of appetite, depression, bleeding from the rectum, bloody vomiting, exhaustion and weight loss. Advanced stage symptoms of Hepatitis C are those due to chronic inflammation of the liver (hepatitis), cirrhosis (scarring of tissues) of liver and/or liver failure.
The patients with acute Hepatitis C present with lethargic feeling, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, body pain, and exhaustion. Objectively, one may observe yellowness of sclera (icterus or jaundice as it is called).