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Hepatitis - In The News Again!

By Laraine Rose

I WAS APPALLED at what I read on the CNN channel tonight, February 10, 2011, under the heading of "VA clinic testing veterans possibly exposed to hepatitis, HIV."

In Dayton, Ohio a dentist of the VA clinic admitted to not washing his hands or changing gloves between patients. A total of 600 to 630 patient records are said to have had to be reviewed and most of these patients, treated by the dentist between January 1, 1992 and July 28, 2010 have had to be contacted.

THIS IS NOT the first time Hepatitis has been in the news. The Boston Evening Globe entitled, "Hepatitis-laden Blood Kills", stated that hepatitis transmitted by blood transfusions is killing an average of one person a month in the Boston area. In Chicago it is said to be one death every four days. In a New York hospital, 25 percent of open-heart-surgery patients contracted the liver disease from infected blood. The paper adds: “It is a growing problem that doctors and public health officials seem powerless to eliminate.” One reason for its growth is that more persons are becoming drug addicts and contract hepatitis from dirty hypodermic needles, then sell their blood for money. Screening of blood products for HIV has NOT eliminated the transmission of this terrible disease.

Hepatitis B has been called - A Silent Killer

THE liver filters poisons from the blood and performs at least 500 other important functions. That is why hepatitis - inflammation of the liver - can devastate a person’s health. Hepatitis may result from excessive alcohol consumption or exposure to toxins. Most often, though, viruses are the culprit.

Scientists have identified five such viruses and believe that there are at least three more.

Just one of the five - hepatitis B virus (HBV) - kills at least 600,000 people a year, comparable to the toll taken by malaria. More than two billion people - nearly a third of the world’s population - have been infected with HBV, and most recovered within months. For about 350 million, however, the disease became chronic. For the rest of their lives, whether they have symptoms or not, they will have the potential to infect others.

Proper medical care, started early, can help some with chronic HBV to ward off serious liver damage.

But most are unaware that they have been infected, as only a specific blood test can detect HBV. Even routine liver function tests may come back normal. Thus, HBV can be a silent killer, striking without warning. Obvious symptoms may not appear until decades after infection. By then, either cirrhosis or cancer of the liver may have developed. These diseases take the life of 1 in 4 HBV carriers.

Five viruses are known to cause hepatitis, the three most common being designated A, B, and C. Other viruses are also suspected. The symptoms of all forms of hepatitis can be flulike and may or may not include jaundice. Many people, particularly children, have no symptoms. With hepatitis B and hepatitis C, the liver may already be severely damaged by the time symptoms appear.

HEPATITIS A VIRUS (HAV)

HAV is present in the feces of an infected person. The virus can survive in salt or fresh water and in ice cubes.

A person can come in contact with HAV by:

- Eating uncooked seafood from water contaminated with human waste or ingesting contaminated water.

- Having close physical contact with an infected person or sharing food, drink, or eating utensils with him.

- Not washing hands thoroughly after using the toilet or changing an infected baby or before preparing food.

HAV causes acute but usually not chronic illness. In almost all cases, the body clears itself of the virus within weeks or months. There is no specific standard treatment besides rest and adequate nutrition.

Alcohol, as well as drugs that burden the liver, such as acetaminophen, should be avoided until a doctor determines that the liver is completely healed. A person who has had HAV will probably not get it again but can get other types of hepatitis. Vaccination can prevent hepatitis A.

HEPATITIS B VIRUS (HBV)

HBV is present in the blood, semen, and vaginal fluids of infected people. The virus spreads when these fluids enter the body of someone who is not immune.

The hepatitis B virus can be transmitted by:

- Birth (from an infected mother to her baby).

- Medical, dental, tattooing, or body-piercing instruments that have not been properly sterilized.

- Shared hypodermic needles, razors, nail files or clippers, toothbrushes, or anything else that can transfer even a tiny amount of blood through any break in the skin.

- Sexual activity.

Health authorities believe that HBV is not spread by insects, or by coughing, holding hands, hugging, kissing on the cheek, breast-feeding, or sharing food, drink, chopsticks, or other eating utensils. Most adults recover from acute HBV and will then be immune to it. Small children are at high risk of developing chronic infection. Untreated, chronic hepatitis B can lead to liver failure and death. Vaccination can prevent hepatitis B.

HEPATITIS C VIRUS (HCV)

HCV is transmitted in much the same way as HBV but most commonly by the injection of drugs with contaminated needles. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C.

NEARLY A THIRD of the world’s population has been infected with this potentially fatal disease and is considered pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Complacency about HIV may play a key role in HIV risk. It would be advisable to learn how to protect yourself.

Contributor's Note

More information on classification, signs and symptoms and treatment of HIV at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV

Photo courtesy of Art.com

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Who is LaraineRose
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It is unfortunate that human blood is bought and sold like toilet paper. Voluntary donors in Europe can donate only twice a year whereas, it seems, paid donors can donate as often as they need the money. (There are exceptions for those donors with rare blood groups.)
If there was proper quality control in the blood banks, I'm sure that several dreadful, contageous diseases could be kept out of emergency rooms and operating theatres.

theoldcoot Feb 11, 2011 16:26

appreciated

Ewww. So this guy wasn't changing gloves between patients? Gross! Some people have the poorest hygiene. I was thoroughly disgusted during a recent visit to the vet when she put the thermometer back in the case without disinfecting it - after pulling it out of my dog's butt! I emptied an entire bottle of alcohol disinfecting myself, my kids, and my dog as soon as we got out the door.

I wonder what would happen if that vet was reported. I guess you'd have a hard time proving it was true. Next time, (I doubt that there will be a next time with that vet) best take along a video camera and catch her in the act!

An extremely well written post detailing Hepatitus problems and the diseases themselves A and B can be innoculated against, but there is no protection against C.

You are correct there is no protection against the C virus. Interestingly, although HBV affects people worldwide, about 78 percent of those with chronic hepatitis B live in Asia and the Pacific islands. In much of that region, 1 person in 10 is a carrier. Most sufferers there acquire the virus at birth from their mother or early in childhood from contact with the infected blood of other children. An effective vaccine for newborns and others who are at risk is helping to break this cycle. Where vaccination has been implemented, prevalence of the disease has plummeted.

Great intel. This is especially interesting to me as two people I know contracted a form of hepatitis.

I'm sorry to hear that! I hope that the vaccine will help them.

The World Health Organization provides further information on hepatitis at www.who.int.

"A total of 600 to 630 patient records are said to have had to be reviewed" It must be awful for these people who have to wait to see if they have contracted a disease passed on by this dentist.

I would imagine, Geoff, that most of them would be tested as soon as possible and not wait around long.

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