VIRAL HEPATITIS

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Hepatitis A

Did you know that Hepatitis A is a disease that can be transmitted both via food and via sex?

Hepatitis A is an inflammation of the liver caused by a virus that is transmitted through the waste water or by contaminated food with feces and this is also called food hepatitis. In recent decades in Italy, the incidence of hepatitis A is still significantly decreased due to the improvement of environmental sanitation and those of the food. However Hepatitis A can also be transmitted through unprotected sexual contact.

Hepatitis A has an incubation period of about 28 days when the virus reproduces rapidly in the liver and is then eliminated in high concentrations in the feces. When you have contracted the virus and have passed the acute infection, produce instead of the antibodies that persist in your body and confer protection against re-infection.

The symptoms of hepatitis occur commonly in the acute form. This is especially severe tiredness, vomiting, indigestion, fatigue in the liver area and, as more specific symptoms, a yellowish skin tone and eyes, called jaundice, discolored urine and feces. These symptoms usually disappear in a week or two.

The diagnosis is made analyzing the levels of certain proteins in the liver that are important for its proper functioning.

There is no specific therapy against infection with Hepatitis A. The therapy is in fact usually support only to prevent the patient’s dehydration that sometimes may have also need to go to the hospital when his dehydration is high for recurrent vomiting .

The most effective form for the prevention of Hepatitis A is vaccination, which today is based on an effective and protective vaccine for the whole life. The vaccination is recommended especially for people at risk of infectious diseases, in travelers to developing countries, those with a chronic disease of the liver and drug addicts.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is probably a disease of which you’ve heard. But perhaps you don’t know that is also part of STDs. It consists of an inflammation of the liver caused by a virus that is transmitted through unprotected sex with an infected person.

The incubation period, from the time of exposure to the virus, at the time of onset of symptoms, can vary from six weeks to a maximum of six months. The highest concentration of the virus is found in blood, while much lower concentrations are also present in other body fluids such as semen, vaginal secretions, but also the saliva. The virus is in fact much more infectious and much more stable in the environment of HIV.

Hepatitis B usually occurs in almost asymptomatic or with mild symptoms and very little identifiable. The symptomatic forms, albeit rare, are characterized by fever, fatigue, general malaise, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain. You can also look more specific symptoms, like a sallow skin and eyes, called jaundice. Only rarely the infection has serious consequences, such as liver failure with progression to fulminant hepatitis, which can even lead to death.

The diagnosis of hepatitis B, such as Hepatitis A, is mostly based on the sudden increase of certain proteins in the liver, that if at normal levels, are used for the proper functioning of the liver. After the infection, the laboratory examination is important to do is to research the DNA of the virus, which becomes positive about six weeks after infection. The appearance of antibodies against the virus itself is more late and informs that the infection is being resolved.

Today in Italy the number of cases of hepatitis B has been drastically reduced since the introduction in 1991 of vaccination for all newborns. This has led to today immunize entire Italian population under 35 years, but there are still many young people and adults at risk of hepatitis B, especially among foreigners and immigrants. Vaccination is it recommended for all unvaccinated immigrants, particularly those from countries where the virus has spread.

WHO – Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR)

http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/en/

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