19th of May, World Day for Hepatitis
May 19th, 2008, World Hepatitis Day
Following the proposal of the World Health Organization and also the other international scientific forums, the May 19th was declared the World Hepatitis Day.
Why was dedicated a special day to this precise infection? Here are some figures that can inform us on the vast proportions that the diseases caused by the hepatics viruses had obtained.
The hepatitis represents a serious problem of public health in the entire world, a threat that is getting serious and serious for the mankind.Globally, 500 million people are infected with the C or B hepatitis and most of them do not know that they are infected. All these, considering the fact that the C hepatitis is 10 times and the B hepatitis is 100 times more contagious than the HIV infection.
This is why, once the mankind progresses on the medical diagnosis and track down, there are new and complex challenges that arise.How does the hepatics viruses look like, behave like? What do they determine?
The B hepatitis virus (VHB) can be transmitted through the direct contact both with blood and some biological fluids, such as saliva, sperm or breast milk, all these can be the transmission ways to this infection.The most frequent ways of transmission are the mother to child ones (also named vertical transmission), unprotected intercourse, blood transfusion and infected blood's derivatives and the use in common of the infected medical injection equipment (in case of the intravenous drug users - IDU).
Most of the VHB infection cases do not have clear symptoms or none.If these symptoms do occur, the most frequent are: fatigue, anxiety, sensation of load in the right hypochondria, loss of appetite, jaundice, nausea and queasiness, diffuse muscle pains, itchiness.
In the present, worldwide live over 400 million people infected with VHB. Unlike the C hepatitis, for the B virus there is a vaccine credited with a protection rate of 95%.This is why the early vaccination against the B hepatitis provides a chance of a life without this infection.
Again in comparison with the hepatitis C, the VHB infection chronics and generates more rarely the hepatic cancer or cirrhosis.Unfortunately, there is the chronical viral portage, with no visible symptom that would indicate this and that would expose to infection a high number of people.
As regards the C hepatitis virus (VHC), in Europe there are 8,9 million people infected with this virus.Unfortunately, not even Romania succeeded to skip this calamity. The statistic data communicated by the epidemiological surveillance forums in our country state that the yearly registered new cases indicate an increase.
Hepatitis C represents the viral infection of the liver, caused by the C Hepatic Virus (VHC). Its etiologic agent was merely identified in 1989, this discovery lead to the understanding of its primordial role to cause the post-transfusion hepatitis and it's known and increased tendency to get chronic.
VHC is an ARN virus, from the Flaviviridae family, characterized by a very high (80%) mutagenesis parameter (the mutation rate of the viral genome, which causes modifications in the virus's structure). This phenomenon can explain the long persistence as the development of chronic hepatitis in an increased number of cases.
Worldwide, it is estimated a number of 170 million people (3% of the world population) are VHC infected, among whom 3 up to 4 million new cases are registered every year.Unfortunately, the cases of hepatitis with VHC have a high risk to develop later on a hepatic cancer or chronic hepatitis.
The prevalence of this infection is higher in Africa, Mediterranean Region and Asia than in Europe. According to the modern era where the movement of the population from big distances from the natal places, both for tourism and as migration phenomenon, generates additional exposures that should be permanently considered.
The main ways of transmitting the VHC are:
- Mainly through blood and some blood derivatives, administrated through transfusion;
- Usage in common of the infected medical equipment or infected syringes' needles ( e.g. the case of the intravenous drug users);
- Vertical or sexual transmission are possible, although their frequency is more reduced;
- Other ways of transmission are the ones connected to social, cultural and behavioural practices, such as: piercing, circumcision, tattoo, all of these proceeded in unsterile conditions;
HVC it is not transmitted through sneeze, hug, cough, food, common use of the housing objects.Both in the developed countries and in the developing ones, the groups considered to be at a high HVC risk are the intravenous drug users, haemophiliacs, the patients who were dialysed or transfused with blood epidemiologic unverified, people with multiple sex partners and with unprotected intercourse.
Over 90% of the people with chronic VHC infection who live in the developed countries are present or former intravenous drug users or who received unverified blood.In many of the developing countries, the populations that practice some rituals of scarification or circumcises, the risk is higher if they use unsterile equipment.
As for the VHC infection, the incubation period varies from 15 to 150 days! In an acute period, if it is clinically visible, the most frequent symptoms are the fatigue and the jaundice.With all these, the seemingly clinical forms represent a decreased percentage of only 30-40%.
80% of the infected people will develop a chronic infection with this virus, among these cases, 10 up to 20% get complicated with cirrhosis. Out of the people chronic infected for more than 20-30 years, the frequency of occurrence of the hepatic cancer is 1-5%, without being known the way the VHC causes this type of cancer.
Unfortunately, there isn't an efficient vaccine for the VHC infection. Also the costs of the treatment for the VHC chronic hepatitis are much higher than most of the people living in the developing can afford.For this reason there's the spotlight on prevention, especially as regards the groups with high risk (e.g. IDU).
Here are some reasons for which the infections with the hepatic viruses can be considered as a threat to the mankind.We can protect and defend ourselves only if we are informed and only together with the sanitary authorities that coordinate the public health can be found efficient ways of stopping this disease.
Therefore, today, May 19th, we join the ones celebrating worldwide the World Hepatitis Day hoping that the medical science will progress in a sufficient short time in order to transform this disease in one perfectly treatable and controllable.
Information and news on the hepatic viruses can be found on the website of SANOHEP - The Association of the Registered Patients with Hepatic Diseases in Romania www.sanohep.gdd.ro or on the website of the European Liver Patients Association diseases www.elpa-info.org (website available in English).
