What is hepatitis?
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Oct 9, 2017
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Dr. Leelmohan Ravikumar talks more about hepatitis, the different types of the virus, and how they are contracted.
What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis by the definable sense is inflammation or irritation of the liver. The cause of hepatitis is different so it could be drug induced, it could be trauma induced, it could be autoimmune induced, or it could be infectiously induced. But the blanket term hepatitis is actually anything that causes inflammation or irritation of the liver.
Okay, so hepatitis A is a virus that is most commonly transmitted through contaminated food or body fluids. So, you will commonly see that in people that have recently traveled to places that don't have hygienic conditions. It tends to be a self limiting process meaning that the body is able to fight off most infections with supportive care through the hospital's resources and through the eyes of a primary care physician. Hepatitis B is a virus that tends to be transmitted through body fluids mostly and that is commonly seen in sexually transmitted diseases, even though less so, IV drug use, contaminated needle products, or any type of occupational exposure to contaminated body fluids. Hepatitis B actually is the only hepatitis that actually has a proven vaccination against it. And people who are vaccinated against hepatitis B are able to fight off infections very well and the efficacy is almost ninety percent and greater actually. We commonly immunize children and healthcare workers for hepatitis B.
Hepatitis C is a relatively new diagnosis of a class of hepatitis, it's been around for maybe fifty years. Hepatitis C is actually predominantly transmitted through contaminated fluids. Commonly seen with people that engage in IV drug use, people at high risk activities such as sex workers or people that are exposed to body fluids. The reason hepatitis C has now gotten a lot more attention in the media is that several decades ago there was no testing done for any blood products for hepatitis C because it was actually unknown. So some people, especially elderly people may have had blood products or transfusions that may have been contaminated with hepatitis C through no one's knowledge. So there is an incentive ... there is actually a process to get most elderly people screened for hepatitis C. That is a process going through right now for elderly people for testing. Younger people do not have to worry about it. We routinely test all bloodborne products and any type of fluids, including IV fluids, for hepatitis C regularly. So, the problem has been self resolved recently.