What Is Hepatitis?

What is Hepatitis? There are five types of Hepatitis. There are some known symptoms of Hepatitis that perhaps, if you experience some, you should not hesitate to tell your doctor and get tested for it. Detecting early stages of Hepatitis may prevent future cirrhosis and maybe even death.

Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver caused by a virus. Once the virus invades your body, your cells try hard to fight against it. This in turn, tires out the liver causing damage to it and with course, developing cirrhosis, which is the scarring of the liver. In time, cirrhosis can lead to cancer and eventually death.

Types of Hepatitis

There are five types of hepatitis; Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. Hepatitis A (HAV) and Hepatitis E (HEV) are transmitted through consumption of contaminated food or water. Hepatitis B, C and D are transmitted through blood transfusions, other types of invasive medical treatments, bodily fluids due to birth, and sexual contact. But never through casual contact. Vaccines are usually good treatments for patients with Hepatitis A, B, D and E. Not necessarily for Hepatitis C (HCV) infections. There still isn’t a vaccine that can fight off the HCV. There is however, a variety of medications used to protect the liver from damage. Patients taking this treatment must be monitored through a variety of blood tests to determine whether the medications are indeed working. For treatment of chronic HBV infections, doctors prescribe antiviral drugs and interferon. In many cases, a liver transplant is necessary due to severe liver damage.

Symptoms of Hepatitis

Each type of hepatitis can either be acute or chronic. Obviously, depending on the level of trauma caused to the liver, the symptoms may vary. With acute hepatitis, symptoms may not even be noticeable till six months to ten years from having gotten the virus. For those who do get symptoms, it is usually stomach pain, vomiting, tiredness, fever, loss of appetite, muscle pain, jaundice and abnormalities in urine or bowel movements. Those at higher risk of developing Hepatitis B, C, and D are those infected with HIV, those receiving hemodialysis, those who have more than one sexual partner, male on male sexual encounters, and those born from parents with the hepatitis infection.

How To Determine If I Have Hepatitis?

Hepatitis is detected through a variety of blood work your primary care physician may send out routinely. Even more so, if you happened to mention any of the above symptoms to your physician. Antibody and antigen tests can detect each of the different hepatitis viruses.

If you or anybody you know suffer of any of these symptoms, seek immediate help with your Primary care doctor or with your Gastroenterologist. By seeking attention at an early stage of hepatitis, you can help prevent potential liver damage.