What is hepatitis?
Hepatitis is a term meaning inflammation of the liver.
What is the liver?
The liver is the largest organ in the body and has numerous functions, including:
- Cleaning the blood
- Fighting off infection
- Breaking down food and nutrients
- Storing vitamins, minerals and sugar
What are the causes of hepatitis?
There are several causes of hepatitis, these include:
Non-infectious causes – alcohol abuse, drug toxicity, autoimmune hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, hemochromatosis and Primary Biliary Cholangitis – a progressive destruction of the bile ducts in the liver.
Infectious causes, such as Hepatitis A, B C, Delta and E viruses, and Rubella virus, Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex virus and Q fever.
What are the symptoms of hepatitis?
Depending upon the type and stage of hepatitis, but can include:
How do you get it, and can it be treated and prevented?
Hepatitis A – spread by either direct contact with a person who has the illness or from eating or drinking contaminated food or fluids.
Treatment: getting better can be slow and may take several weeks or months requiring rest, healthy diet and abstinence from alcohol.
Prevention: vaccination and taking care not to ingest contaminated food and water.
Hepatitis B – is a virus carried in the blood and bodily fluids of infected people. Transmission commonly occurs vertically from mother to baby at birth; the sharing of dirty needles/equipment used for tattooing/injecting drugs and having unprotected sex.
Treatment: antiviral medications can suppress the virus, however there is no cure. People with hepatitis B require lifelong surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – a form of liver cancer.
Prevention: vaccination. Adopting safe practices to prevent transmission e.g. using condoms, needle and syringe disposal programs can also help.
Hepatitis C – also a blood-borne virus transmitted by blood-to-blood contact.
Treatment: can be cured with a short course of antiviral medication.
Prevention: There is no vaccine available to prevent hepatitis C. Prevention is by reducing transmission risk.
Approximately 335,000 Australians are living with hepatitis B or C.
Hepatitis D – only affects people who already have hepatitis B
Treatment and prevention is the same as hepatitis B.
Hepatitis E – transmitted primarily via oral-faecal route i.e. sewage contaminated water. Treatment: symptomatic.
Hepatitis E is a notifiable disease.
Alcoholic Hepatitis – caused by excessive alcohol intake.
Treatment and prevention includes: abstinence from alcohol, dietary supplements i.e. Thiamine, folate and vitamin D.
Women are twice as sensitive to alcohol-medicated hepatotoxicity as men.
Autoimmune Hepatitis – occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the liver cells, resulting in scarring and cirrhosis.
Cannot be cured but medications can manage symptoms and prevent complications.
Fatty Liver Disease – Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or metabolic associated liver disease (MAFLD) are associated with metabolic risk factors e.g. diabetes and obesity dyslipidaemia.
July 28 is World Hepatitis Day. This year’s theme is Australia can’t wait to eliminate hepatitis. You can find out more at: https://www.worldhepatitisday.org.au/