Every year on 28 July we celebrate world hepatitis day, to bring in global awareness on hepatitis. Hepatitis is marked as the world’s eighth authorized worldwide public health movement by the World Health Organization.

Every year, the world hepatitis day comes up with a goal to make the world free of hepatitis one day, it brings the whole world under a single theme that is to completely eradicate hepatitis.

This year also on 28 July 2018 we come up with the theme of world hepatitis day which is “eliminate Hepatitis”, and it will be very soon achieved because of the tremendous efforts made by the government to spread awareness of it and steps to eradicate it.

Hepatitis is a collection of infectious diseases identified as Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. Hepatitis is a deadly disease that affects millions of people around the world every year. Due to the lack of global attention hepatitis has become a major killer.

Hepatitis B and C are major viral diseases and are even the root cause of liver cancer affecting millions of people globally and even causing millions of deaths every year. They are chronic infections and do not show symptoms for a very long period, but timely testing and treatment of this disease can save lives. Hepatitis A and E are short-term virus infections and last for about a week or two.

Out of 10 people who are living with viral hepatitis, 8 are living with this viral without knowing that they have hepatitis. Thus, the Moto to celebrate world hepatitis day is to make people aware and to provide them with proper knowledge, awareness, and treatment of this disease so that many lives can be saved.

The hepatitis disease leads to malfunctioning and extensive scarring of the liver.

Causes of Hepatitis

• Cause of Hepatitis A: It is transmitted by a fecal-oral route as if eating unhygienic food or food prepared by an infected person. It is caused by hepatitis A virus
• Causes of Hepatitis B: This disease is vertically transmitted, sexually transmitted, and is transmitted by body and blood fluids. It is caused by the hepatitis B virus
• Causes of Hepatitis C: This disease is transmitted through body and blood fluids. It is caused by the hepatitis C virus
• Causes of Hepatitis D: It is caused when you get in direct contact with infected blood. It is caused by the hepatitis D virus.
• Causes of Hepatitis E: It is caused by the virus hepatitis E and is a waterborne disease.
• Non-Infectious Hepatitis-This can be the result of consuming an excessive amount of alcohol, which directly injures the cells of the liver causing liver failure. Overdose and overuse of medications and exposure to poison are also the cause of hepatitis. The autoimmune system is also a cause of non-infectious hepatitis, which is caused when our body starts producing antibodies against the liver tissues.
• 90% of the infection is spread from the mother to the child, or children have it in their early childhood. But people who inject drugs, people who have tattoos or acupuncture, people living with a partner who has hepatitis B, people working as health care workers, and men who are involved in homosexual intercourse are highly vulnerable to be affected by hepatitis.

Symptoms of Hepatitis

Hepatitis B and C show symptoms when the damage starts affecting the liver, initially it shows no symptoms.

The symptoms are as follows:

• Weight loss
• Abdominal pain
• Dark urine
• Pale stool
• Flu-like symptoms
• Showing signs of jaundice like yellow eyes and skin
• Loss of appetite
• Fatigue

How Hepatitis Is Diagnosed

Hepatitis is diagnosed by the physical examination which is done by the doctor like seeing for your liver enlargement or pain in the abdomen, or yellowness of the skin. Your doctor will also take your blood samples for testing liver functions, having other blood tests to detect the source of the problem. You will also have an abdominal ultrasound and a liver biopsy done for a more accurate report of the disease.

Tips to Prevent Hepatitis

To prevent hepatitis you can take the following precautions because precautions are always better than cure.

• The most important tip to prevent hepatitis is to get yourself vaccinated. There are vaccines available for preventing hepatitis A and B. There are many camps conducted every year that provide these vaccines free of cost.
•  You should be very hygienic and should always try to avoid as much as you can the eating local food especially the raw and uncooked one and also avoid drinking water from anywhere, do not eat fruits without washing.
•  You should never share anyone’s razors, drug needles, and toothbrushes and even never touch spilled blood.

Previous Post     Next Post