<s>[INST] Hello, My mother is 54. She has a history of HCV which has been treated and is on SVR, She has T2DM and on Insulin, plus she has celiac disease. The problem is, she often has low platelet counts such as 70 thousand a week ago. What could be the reason. [/INST] Hi, Low platelet counts are commonly seen in hep C infected patients. The reason is weak bone marrow which cannot synthesize platelets and large spleen which eats some platelets. Autoimmune destruction of platelets has also been proposed. However, you need not worry as long as platelet count is over 30000 as clinical bleeding is uncommon above that level. You need to take precautions to see that she keeps away from injuries to prevent bleeding. All the best. </s>