Friday 11 August 2017

VIRAL HEPATITIS. THE EPIDEMIC THAT CAN NOW BE ERRADICATED.

Viral hepatitis or liver inflammation, are caused by viruses that are generally type A, B, C, D and E. Types B and C are the main causers of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer out of all the different branches of Hepatitis.
According to the World Health Organisation (OMS) there are four hundred million people infected in the world with half of those people not even aware of its presence.

HEPATITIS A and E.
It is commonly suffered by children and adolescents and presents itself in the form of epidemics as it is transmitted through contaminated food and water. It presents itself with vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, yellow discoloration of the mucus membranes or jaundice, dark urine and discoloured faeces in the majority of cases; although it sometimes does not show any symptoms and solves itself without any scars creating permanent immunity.

HEPATITIS B.
It is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse, blood (through transfusion or substance abuse) and from mothers to children during the pregnancy or birth. No symptoms are present in the majority of cases.
90% of cases solve themselves, however the remaining 10% turn into chronic cases that can lead to liver cancer without a previous stage of cirrhosis.
Its treatment is through antivirals. There is a vaccine available for this type of Hepatitis and it is present in the vaccination calendar of the majority of countries.

HEPATITIS C.
It is a type of Hepatitis that it is silent in the majority of cases. A quick diagnosis and effective administration of the treatment that are at our current disposal will prevent this type of Hepatitis from reaching the last stages of Cirrhosis and Liver cancer.
The Hepatitis C virus was discovered towards the end of the 1980s, therefore every person that received a blood transfusion prior to this date has to have a blood test to detect the presence of this virus. The latency of this pathology, which can last up to twenty years, and its lack of symptoms make it one of the diseases that we should be keeping a close eye on, especially if we have or have had any risk factors in the past.

Even though blood transfusions were the primary method of contagion prior to 1992, the placement of piercings and tattoos in unsterilized places is now the major source of transmission. The use of shared needles in drug abuse is also one of the most frequent ways of transmitting this disease.

DIAGNOSIS.
The elevation of the hepatic transaminases and consequently the detection of antibodies and viral load counts will lead us to a diagnosis.

If only everybody could have access to an accurate diagnosis, the vaccine for Hepatitis B and to the treatment for Hepatitis C.

Dr J. Hurtado Martínez
Medical Director of HealthSalus

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