HEPATITIS
Your liver helps your body digest food, store energy and remove poisons. Hepatitis is a swelling of the liver that makes it stop working well. It can lead to scarring, called cirrhosis, or to cancer.
Hepatitis simply means inflammation of the liver. Inflammation can be caused by infections from hepatitis viruses, by alcohol use, by inherited diseases, and by eating certain mushrooms and chemicals.
When your liver is working well, it helps your body digest food, store energy and remove poisons. Hepatitis usually causes the liver to swell because of the inflammation. This “swelling” of the liver makes it stop working well and can lead to scarring of the liver tissue, called cirrhosis, or to liver cancer.
Viruses cause most cases of hepatitis. The type of hepatitis is named for the virus that causes it; for example, hepatitis A, hepatitis B or hepatitis C. Drug or alcohol use can also lead to hepatitis. In other cases, your body mistakenly attacks its own tissues. You can help prevent some viral forms by getting a vaccine. Sometimes hepatitis goes away by itself. If it does not, it can be treated with drugs. Sometimes hepatitis lasts a lifetime.
Some people who have hepatitis have no symptoms. Others may have
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea and vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Dark-colored urine and pale bowel movements
- Stomach pain
- Jaundice, yellowing of skin and eyes
Hepatitis Facts: Worldwide Snapshot
Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) Infection:
- In 2005, there were an estimated 42,000 Hepatitis A infections.
- Hepatitis A is the cause of 30 days of missed work and approximately $2,600 in lost wages each year.
- Medical care alone for hepatitis A can cost $2,800 for each hospitalized case.
- Approximately 100 Americans die each year from Hepatitis A.
- The annual cost associated with Hepatitis A is estimated at $200 million in the U.S.
Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Infection:
- HBV is 100 times more infectious than HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS.
- Hepatitis B vaccine can provide immunity in over 95% of young healthy adults.
- An estimated 350 million people are infected globally with HBV.
- Approximately 1 million die each year from complications from HBV.
- 70% of new cases occur among people between the ages of 15-39.
- Every year 5,000 Americans die from cirrhosis and 1,000 from liver cancer due to HBV infections.
- 22,000 pregnant women in the U.S. are infected with HBV and can transmit it to their newborns.
- HBV can live on a dry surface for at least 7 days.
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection:
- 3% of the world's population is infected with HCV, or approximately 170 million people. 90% of HCV patients who are in need of treatment today cannot afford it.
- 80% of affected people can become chronically infected and risk serious long-term clinical disease including cirrhosis and liver cancer.
- 8 countries – Bolivia, Burundi, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Mongolia, Rwanda, and Tanzania – have an HCV prevalence above 10%.
- 7 countries/areas – Gabon, Libya, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, Vietnam, Zaire, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – have an HCV prevalence between 5 and 10%.
- In developing countries, the primary sources of HCV infection include transfusion of blood or blood products from unscreened donors; transfusion of blood products that have not undergone viral inactivation; parenteral exposure to blood through the use of contaminated or adequately sterilized instruments and needles used in medical and dental procedures; the use of unsterilized objects for rituals (e.g. circumcision, scarification), traditional medicine (e.g. blood-letting) or other activities that break the skin (e.g. tattooing, ear or body-piercing); and intravenous drug use. Household or sexual contacts of HCV-infected persons are marginally at risk.
In developed countries, persons at risk of HCV infection include recipients of previously unscreened blood, blood products, and organs; intravenous drug users; individuals undergoing chronic hemodialysis; health care workers with percutaneous exposure from contaminated needles or sharps; persons who participate in high-risk sexual practices; and persons undergoing medical or dental procedures with inadequately sterilized instruments. Sexual and household transmission are uncommon.
(Sources: National Institutes of Health/ Hepatitis Foundation International)
HEPATITIS – viral and other types:
Viruses cause most cases of hepatitis. The type of hepatitis is named for the virus that causes it; for example, hepatitis A, hepatitis B or hepatitis C. Drug or alcohol use can also lead to hepatitis. In other cases, your body mistakenly attacks its own tissues. You can help prevent some viral forms by getting a vaccine. Sometimes hepatitis goes away by itself. If it does not, it can be treated with drugs. Sometimes hepatitis lasts a lifetime. Patients who develop certain types of chronic viral hepatitis have an increased risk of developing Liver Cancer. The main types of Hepatitis are listed below:
- Hepatitis A - caused by infection with Hepatitis A virus
- Hepatitis B - caused by infection with Hepatitis A virus
- Hepatitis C – caused by infection with Hepatitis C virus
- Hepatitis D – caused by infection with Hepatitis D or Delta virus
- Alcoholic Hepatitis – inflammation and damage to the liver caused drinking too much alcohol
- Auto-immune Hepatitis – the body mistakenly attacks its own liver tissue
HEPATITIS – Cirrhosis:
In the early stages of hepatitis (inflammation), the body tries to make new healthy liver cells. If inflammation continues for too long, however, the body starts to replace liver cells with scar tissue. After years of constant inflammation and tissue replacement, the liver starts to look like a big piece of scar tissue with few areas that function normally. When a liver becomes mostly scar tissue, it is said to have cirrhosis.
HEPATITIS – liver failure:
The liver is an important organ--so important that it is impossible to live without one. Hepatitis can gradually destroy liver cells so that there are not enough liver cells left to support vital functions of the body. When too few liver cells are working to perform all of the liver's important functions, liver failure is the result. Liver failure comes in varying degrees of severity, but generally speaking, someone with liver failure usually only has weeks to live.
