Plain truth asked:


In most infectious diseases, immunoglogulins type G are the ones which are looked for to confirm serologic diagnosis of the disease. Why is this different for hepatitis A and is this IgM that we are looking for?

Christine

Kaycee asked:


I am having the last shot of the Hepatitis B vaccine and I want to know if there is a time limit that I should wait before trying to get pregnant?

Joanne

Me asked:


I had the shot when I was younger its been a couple of year. They just called me from the doctor to tell me that something came out either because I currently have it or because I had it when I was younger which is not possible because I have the Vaccine (unless it expired). I’ve been told that when you have the vaccine and you get tested it will show active and they will make retake the test is this true? This happened to me last year I got tested for Hepatitis C and something showed up and they made me get tested again and everything came back fine. Now, its happening with Hepatitis B. Thank you!

Duane

joe asked:


I am engaged to be married to the most wonderful woman I have ever met. However she has Hepatitis B, I am immune via vaccination, and she is undergoing treatment for her condition. Once we are married, is it possible to bring her to the US?

Holly

Groshan Fabiola asked:


It is known that Hepatitis B is transmittable from mother to baby during pregnancy. In India the prevalence of HBV is 4% and the most frequent form of virus transmission is from mother to child, during pregnancy, and in early childhood.

The HBV infection is possible to occur during pregnancy on a healthy person and infect the foetus too, or it could have existed long before the mother got pregnant.

A North Indian study showed that HBV has no predilection for pregnant women. Of the pregnant and non-pregnant women that were involved in this study, 19% of the pregnant women were infected, and 18 % of the non-pregnant women were infected too. Also, the disease was not affecting pregnant women in a different way than affecting non-pregnant ones.

Some of the symptoms that come along with the prodromal stage of hepatitis can be mistaken with those for pregnancy: nausea, vomiting. Also fatigue, headaches, muscle ache, and low grade fewer can be mistaken with flu. In 2 to 10 days of the prodrome jaundice appears and the patient could accuse pain in the right side of the body, just beneath the rib cage. The doctor could sense hepatomegaly (meaning that the liver has swollen), and sometimes splenomegaly. In approximately 6 weeks these symptoms will disappear, and if not treated, in 6 months, chronic hepatitis could install.

Sometimes the installation of the disease could cause premature labour (in 31.6% of the infected patients), and post partum hemorrhages.

In diagnosing acute hepatitis B doctors use viral markers like: HBsAg and IgM Anti-HBc.

The treatment of HBV in a pregnant woman is similar to the one used for a non-pregnant woman: bed rest, vitamins, and high calorie diet. The vaccine is not recommended in pregnant women.

The chronic hepatitis does not manifest in its early stages but only when it affects most of the liver. The chronic hepatitis is diagnosed most frequently when the patient feels ill and asks the doctor for some tests, or when a woman gets pregnant and the obstetrician recommends her some usual blood tests. If the level of serum transaminases is high, this means chronic hepatitis is present. Sometimes the doctor can palpate the spleen and liver but if the pregnancy is in the last months that can not be done. Also, the palmar erythema could suggest hepatitis but this sign is found in pregnancy too.

Pregnant women with chronic hepatitis usually have a normal pregnancy, and complications appear only if cirrhosis develops. Cirrhosis leads to portal hypertension and esophageal variceal hemorrhage, which could lead to maternal mortality.

Treating chronic hepatitis B is made in similar ways with treating non-pregnant women. Interferon alpha is no used because it can lead to foetus malformations. Lamivudine is considered to be safe for pregnant women and foetus and it is administered daily in an oral dose of 100 mg.

If you want to find out more resources about hepatitis c treatment or even about causes of hepatitis c you should visit this website http://www.hepatitis-guide.com

Alvin

sirtitus asked:


I’ve recently recovered from acute Hepatitis B. Christmas and New Years are coming up. I may be wanting a beer or two. How long should I wait before I take a drink again?
Addition: 4 answers but nobody answered my question. I don’t have Hep C, I don’t have chronic Hep B. I don’t have a drinking problem. My question was “How long after acute Hep B is it safe to drink again?”

Leo

Groshan Fabiola asked:


Hepatitis is the medical problem that appears when your liver is inflamed. This may happen because of a virus, but there are some other factors that can cause hepatitis as well. Alcohol, certain medication and even trauma can cause hepatitis. Hepatitis is not a life threatening condition and can be treated. However, there are cases when a certain virus that causes hepatitis can cause an infection which can last a very long time, known as chronic hepatitis. This infection can even lead to liver failure and even death.

Viral hepatitis is the hepatitis cause by a virus. There are four types of this kind of hepatitis: hepatitis A, the hepatitis B, C hepatitis and of course delta hepatitis. The most frightening of all these types of hepatitis is the hepatitis C. It is cause by a virus specific to hepatitis C. This hepatitis virus affects a large number of people every year. This condition is usually looked at as mild, however this type of hepatitis can very easily lead to chronic liver problems, unlike the hepatitis B type. Everyone that gets infected with the hepatitis virus can be chronic carriers of this virus. However, many of them will not even have hepatitis symptoms. Out of all the people that carry this hepatitis C virus, about seventy percent will go on to develop a chronic liver problem. It does not matter if they have any hepatitis symptoms or not.

Hepatitis C is usually spread by contact to human blood that has been contaminated with the hepatitis C virus. There is an astonishing number of people that are infected with the hepatitis C virus because of injection of drugs. People who have transfusions of blood are also at risk of infection with the hepatitis C virus. However, the risk is lowered now, because of a test that requires that the blood used for transfusions must be tested for the hepatitis C virus. This type of hepatitis virus can also be transmitted sexually and also between house members. However, it is believed that the risk of developing hepatitis C in these cases is low. You can not get the hepatitis C virus from food, water or by shaking somebody’ s hand. There are symptoms that can tell you that you are suffering from hepatitis C, although a large number of hepatitis patients have no symptoms at all. fever, fatigue, dihareea, muscle aches are some of the hepatitis C symptoms.

For more resources about causes of hepatitis c please review http://www.hepatitis-guide.com/hepatitis-c-treatment.htm or even http://www.hepatitis-guide.com/hepatitis-c-information.htm

Lynn

Groshan Fabiola asked:


Hepatitis C is the most encountered liver disease in both the USA and Europe. It is a viral disease caused by a family of viruses that can inflammate the liver. If it is not discovered and treated it can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer, which can happen because hepatitis C usually doesn’t show any signs and symptoms until it’s too late.

It is important to know all the hepatitis C information as you can, in order to be able to prevent the illness and to know what to do in case you notice any of the symptoms in you or in a family member.

As mentioned before, the cause of hepatitis C is an infection with a virus. This virus can be spread to other people by blood to blood contact. You can get it if you share the same syringe with someone that has it, or by having sex with an infected person. You can’t get hepatitis C by hugging, kissing, or touching people.

Once the virus enter the body it can take years for it to make its presence felt. Many have it and don’t even know about it, some find out during a routine consultation.

At some people acute hepatitis begins right after the infection, and lasts for 6 months. In this phase, no damage is done to the liver and no symptoms appear at more than 50% of the patients. When symptoms do occur, they may include pain in the abdomen, jaundice or loss of appetite.

Some eliminate the virus from their bodies during these first 6 months, but at most people it remains in the blood. If the 6 months pass and the virus is still in the body then chronic hepatitis starts. Chronic hepatitis evolves fast, and unfortunately, it also shown almost no symptoms, so it’s hard to detect it too until it already caused damage to the liver. But when the liver starts to malfunction, many symptoms appear. The most common ones are fever, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, headaches and depression.

It is important to start the treatment as soon as hepatitis C is detected, because after the chronic phase it can progress to cirrhosis, and the liver almost stops functioning.

The virus can be eliminated from the body if action is taken quickly. Hepatitis C therapy is treated moslty with a combination of two drugs - interferons and ribavirin. These drugs can have severe side effects, and they may fail to clear the virus in some cases, so doctors advice patients to choose the therapy method carefully.

There are many support groups for those infected with hepatitis C, that provide them with a lot of accurate hepatitis C information and with the latest medical tehniques used to cure the illness. Also, a lot of hepatitis C information can be found on the Internet, covering all the topics from causes and symptoms to treatment.

If you want to find out more resources about hepatitis or even about hepatitis c information you should visit this website http://www.hepatitis-guide.com

Karl

Groshan Fabiola asked:


Hepatitis C is a disease that inflammates the liver and can cause a lot of damage to it. It can eventually lead to liver cancer if nothing is done to treat it.

Once you get infected with the hepatitis C virus you enter a waiting period of aproximately 6 months. In this time the virus infection shows no signs and symptoms, so in most cases it’s only discovered during a routine test. 20% of the people infected eliminate the virus from their bodies in these, first 6 months, but in 80% of the cases, it remains there and after the time passes it starts to “work”. In the first 6 months, the disease is called acute hepatitis C. If you got the virus and you’re lucky, the doctor discovers it while it’s in the acute phase, and it can easily be treated. But, in the majority of cases it becomes active and acute hepatitis C turns into the dangerous chronic hepatitis C.

Chronic hepatitis C is hard to cure, and it can cause life threatening complications. Most of the patients with hepatitis C can’t be cured, and their condition gets worse and worse as time passes. Chronic hepatitis C treatment can’t cure it, it can only make it progress slower and reduce the pain and damage that it does to the liver.

So the best thing to do is to stay away from the hepatitis C virus. You should learn how hepatitis C is transmitted from one person to another and try to avoid getting infected with it. Knowing the symptoms well so you can consult a doctor as soon as you see any of them appear is also a good thing to do.

Hepatitis C can easily be transmitted by blood to blood contact. Most people get it by sharing the same needle in injections, but because you also get HIV this way, doctors try to prevent this as much as possible, so the number of infections caused by needle sharing is decreasing. Those who inject themselves drugs and use the same syringe on many people are at an enormous risk of getting hepatitis C, HIV, and many other infections. Hepatitis C transmission happens a lot among drug users and in prisons.

A large number of people get hepatitis C from tattooing. The needle used when doing a tattoo can pierce through the skin and cause a small bleeding incision. The same needle is then used on the next customer, and if one of the clients has hepatitis C and gets stung by the tattoo needle, anyone else who will get stung will get it.

The third cause of hepatitis C infections is sex. Many engage in unprotected sexual encounters with strangers, and if your partner has hepatitis C then you will get infected with it too. Although mass media is trying to promote the use of condoms and people are told what the risks of not using them are, still many realize that they have been infected after a sexual encounter with a stranger.

Other methods of hepatitis C transmission can be sharing the same razor when shaving, or brushing teeth with the same toothbrush. Toothbrushes can cause the gums to bleed, and so blood is shared.

Try to remember these basic facts about hepatitis C transmission, and you will be able to avoid getting infected with it. Also remember that chronic hepatitis C can only be totally cured in few cases before doing something foolish.

If you want to find out more resources about hepatitis c transmission or even about hepatitis c symptoms you should visit this website http://www.hepatitis-guide.com

Derrick

peterhutch asked:


What is Hepatitis?

Hepatitis: Inflammation of the liver from any cause.

Hepatitis is most often viral, due to infection with one of the hepatitis viruses (A, B, C, D, and E) or another virus (such as those that cause infectious mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus disease, or yellow fever). The main nonviral causes of hepatitis are alcohol and drugs.

Hepatitis is a major public health problem. Approximately 400 million people have hepatitis B and 170 million have hepatitis C. Both cause chronic liver infection that can be fatal. Hepatitis B and C are implicated in 80% of cases of liver cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the world.

All of these viruses cause acute, or short-term, viral hepatitis. The hepatitis B, C, and D viruses can also cause chronic hepatitis, in which the infection is prolonged, sometimes lifelong.

Other viruses may also cause hepatitis, but they have yet to be discovered and they are obviously rare causes of the disease.

TYPES OF Hepatitis :

Hepatitis A (which is often a milder form of this disease), is frequently transmitted by contaminated food, a route called fecal-oral contamination.

Hepatitis B more often involves transmission by exposure to blood or other body fluids. About 1 million people die worldwide as a result of hepatitis B, often either of liver failure or liver cancer.

Two other viruses are known, hepatitis D and E, but considered as “additional” complications for types B and C.

Other viruses, such as cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, can also cause infectious hepatitis.

Hepatitis C infection can exist undetected for periods as long as 10 to 20 years, and researchers estimate that millions of people are infected and have not yet displayed any symptoms.

Causes of Hepatitis:

Some cases of viral hepatitis cannot be attributed to the hepatitis A, B, C, D, or E viruses. This is called non A…E hepatitis or hepatitis X. Scientists have identified several candidate viruses, but none have been proven to cause hepatitis. The search for the virus responsible for hepatitis X continues.

Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). You may be at risk for hepatitis C if you:

were notified that you received blood from a donor who later tested positive for hepatitis C. have ever injected illegal drugs, even if you experimented a few times many years ago received a blood transfusion or solid organ transplant before July, 1992 were a recipient of clotting factor(s) made before 1987 have ever been on long-term kidney dialysis have evidence of liver disease (e.g., persistently abnormal ALT levels)

What Causes Hepatitis B?

What causes hepatitis B? There is only one cause of hepatitis B — an infection with the hepatitis B virus (also known as HBV). The hepatitis B virus is a DNA virus that belongs to the genus Orthohepadnavirus of the Hepadnaviridae family.

When a person is infected with the hepatitis B virus, the virus is able to enter liver cells from the blood and then use those cells to make more copies of the hepatitis B virus.

Shannon