Contagious Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver and is contagious. Here are some of the characteristics of the disease.

Approximately three to seven percent of the world’s population is supposedly infected with this virus. Are you among them?

 

Hepatitis B is a very dangerous contagious disease. The best prevention is using a condom. (jlp)

Hepatitis B can cause a liver failure

 

Similar to hepatitis A, hepatitis B also involves the infection of the liver, the only difference being that in the case of the former there is a chance of a chronic illness. In the case of hepatitis B, the chances of that are smaller - only 10 percent of the people who have had it carry the virus permanently, meaning that they will have it for the rest of their lives and can infect people around them. In the case of chronic hepatitis B, the worst case scenario is liver failure and cancer of the liver.

How do we get infected?

 

As we have pointed out, hepatitis B happens to be a contagious disease. The infection usually occurs when exchanging bodily fluids like blood, saliva, semen, urine and vaginal excretions (menstrual blood, for example). It can also be transmitted through the milk of a breastfeeding mother. Possible causes for hepatitis B are therefore unprotected sex, blood transfusions, the use of second-hand needles and, as already mentioned, the virus can pass onto the baby during pregnancy and after birth.

 

A child can be infected during pregnancy or labor. (jlp)

What are the symptoms of a hepatitis B infection?

 

It is interesting that most people who get infected get through it without showing the symptoms. The latter are usually exhibited through fatigue, sickness, lack of appetite, vomiting, headaches and a raised body temperature. The infected person’s urine is usually of a darker color, while the excrement is of a lighter shade. The time from the infection to the outbreak of the disease is between 4 to 28 weeks. Those exhibiting the symptoms will have gotten over the disease in four to eight weeks (if theirs is not the more severe form, that is the chronic condition), while many people get through it without getting the symptoms at all. The doctors determine whether or not someone has hepatitis B by taking a blood sample.

 

You can get infected through blood transfusion. (jlp)

Hepatitis B and the treatment

 

There is no known cure for this disease, but we do have effective vaccines to prevent the viral infection. With those people who suffer from a chronic condition, doctors use medications to try to prevent the development of liver cancer and liver failure. The mothers who carry the virus during pregnancy are treated with antibiotics. Apart from the vaccine, the best protection against the virus is the use of condoms.

 

Historically, the first outbreak of hepatitis B occurred in 1885 in Germany. Later, the virus was not known in detail until 1965. That is when Baruch Blumber found the virus in the blood of an Australian aborigine. It caused the biggest number of epidemics in Asia and Africa.

 

 

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