Unleashing Machine Learning for Hepatitis C Prediction: A Holistic Exploration of Clinical Insights

Chronic diseases, characterized by long-term effects and persistent symptoms, pose significant challenges to human health and well-being. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the cause of chronic hepatitis C, which affects 58 million people globally. It also causes 290,000 deaths annually due to liver cancer and cirrhosis, two conditions connected to HCV. Taking advantage of machine learning (ML) algorithms' ability to analyze large datasets and identify patterns and relationships that aid in diagnosis, this effort focuses on employing algorithms for machine learning to identify and forecast hepatitis C precisely. Various techniques were utilized, including Random Forest, Cat Boost, SVM, and others to create predictive models using blood values from 615 patients, including both hepatitis patients and healthy blood donors. The dataset underwent comprehensive preprocessing, including handling missing values, scaling, and dimensionality reduction via Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Various ML algorithms were evaluated, and the Cat Boost classifier achieved the highest accuracy of 99.17%, recall of 92.00%, precision of 100.00% and F1-score is 96.00%. This study demonstrates the potential of ML in enhancing HCV diagnosis, offering less invasive and cost-effective alternatives to traditional methods, and providing predictive insights for personalized treatment plans. The findings underscore the importance of advanced data preprocessing and feature selection in improving model efficiency. This study adds to the ongoing efforts to lessen the prevalence of hepatitis C worldwide, aligning with the World Health Organization's goal to significantly decrease new HCV cases and related deaths by 2030.