Chronic hepatitis C infection is recognized as an important health problemworldwide. Approximately 2–3% of the world population is infected withhepatitis C virus (HCV). Egypt has the highest seroprevalence for Hepatitis C,up to 20% in some areas.Hepatitis C is caused by a small, single-stranded RNA virus. The virus replicatesin the liver at a high rate, resulting in average serum HCV RNA levels of 1 to 2million genome equivalents per milliliter.Although some patients with acute HCV infection have an immune responsesufficient to clear the virus, chronic infection develops in 55 to 85% of patients.Once established, chronic infection rarely resolves spontaneously. Thehepatocellular injury seen in chronic HCV disease appears to be due not to adirect cytopathic effect of the virus but rather to an immunologically mediatedinjury, with natural killer cells and CD8+ T cells playing a central role.The currently recommended therapy for chronic hepatitis C is a combination of formulations of interferon alfa and ribavirin.