Infectious Disease Project-nikki

INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROJECT Hepatitis C Nikkita Mae C. Ampongan| Ms. Aslam| R.H.

What is Hepatitis? • Hepatitis – is the inflammation/swelling of the liver. • Inflammation – is when our liver is getting sore and reddish that may result for our body tissues to be injured or get infected. Also inflammation can cause for our body to not work properly.

What is hepatitis c? • Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the many viruses that can cause inflammation of the liver. • Hepatitis C is generally termed as the inflammation of liver. The inflammation can be caused by an infection. Hepatitis can also be caused by over using of alcohol, medicines, chemicals, poisons, and other toxics or by other disease. • Inflammation of the liver caused by infection with Hepatitis C virus or HCV is referred to as hepatitis C.

Hepatitis history 

It is difficult to limit the origin of HCV in such a short period of human history for some reasons that the virus is found in remote areas all over the world. Additionally the virus is spread through blood to blood contact, making it difficult to find the routes of the virus. In the year 1960’s-1970’s Scientists in that year made some tests for identifying hepatitis A (1963), and hepatitis B (1973) but based from the tests they had been taken many of the blood samples were tested negative for hepatitis A and hepatitis B. They believed that about 90%-95% of cases previously classified as non-A non-B (NA/NB) were actually hepatitis C. In the 1980’s Daniel W. Bradley and Chiron Michael Houghton lead the investigation to identify the virus. Blood banks began screening blood donors for hepatitis C in 1990,

etiology 

Hepatitis C is usually spread through contact with blood products. People who use intravenous (IV) drugs can get hepatitis C when they share needles with someone who has the virus. Also not proper sterilization of needles used can also cause hepatitis. Until recently some health departments, clinics, hospitals and doctors forget to dispose their hazardous waste properly affecting many lives of people by having this kind of disease. Syringes and needles are soaked in alcohol but this procedure is proven that it didn’t work. Drug usage, tattoos and Acupuncture are also known to be some reason for these disease to spread out. One of the example of these are people experiment through their curiosity on one point of their lives, not knowing the consequences but still doing what they wanted. Sharing contaminated needles may have spread the disease from one person to another. Other people may have visited unclean tattoo parlours or acupuncture shops. Last common cause of HCV is sexually transmitted disease. Some people may be diagnose with HCV virus because they lack knowledge about having affairs with somebody that they don’t know if they are sick or not. Although sexual transmission as a cause of hepatitis

Symptoms 

When hepatitis C gets in the body of a person it is referred as an acute phase. In the acute phase people might experience getting tired easily, and yellowing of the eyes and skin. Other symptoms such as headache, fever, and abdominal pain may also occur. However, many people experience no symptoms during this acute phase of infection. When symptoms are present they can range from mild to severe. The most common early symptoms are mild fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, loss of

preventions Some main things on how to prevent HCV: 1. Sharing kitchen utensils - spreading hepatitis C requires direct contact with infected blood, not saliva. 2. Kissing someone – Kissing is actually not well known way on how to catch HCV but you can get these virus through saliva. Also kissing is not a high risk for Hepatitis C. 3. Getting a tattoo or piercing – We all know that tattoo is a famous way of skin art getting this can be safe if you will come to a tattoo studio following correct procedures of proper hygiene and disposal of waste. Some unregulated and amateur artist probably present the greatest risk. 4. Eating food and drinking water – Some hepatitis viruses are spread through food and water, but not hepatitis C. Street foods in some countries are famous, some of them don’t realize that the food their selling is contaminated or worst they already have the virus. 5. Practicing Safe Sex - Hepatitis C can be spread through sexual contact, especially rough sex (when the skin is at risk of being cut or scratched), but this is a very low risk. 6. Nursing a Baby - Obviously, this one is for the women only. While there is a very slight risk of spreading hepatitis C from a pregnant woman to the baby, breastfeeding does not spread 

Treatment and cures 

The objective of treating hepatitis c is to lessen the infection of the liver disease. Although there are some possible treatments to cure the disease and they are as follows:

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Pegylated interferon and ribavirin – in these treatment there are two combinations of medication to take and that is pegylated and interferon and ribavirin. This treatment is taken as a pill. It is recommended that a patient should take it about 48 weeks. Treatment of hepatitis C is not recommended for everyone for some factors. The patient and the health care provider should discuss the potential risks and benefits of the treatment before making a plan to proceed. This are some of the factors that people can’t take the treatments: – Interferon treatment is not recommended for people who have depression problems because they can use this to commit suicide and cause there life to death. Interferon can cure people with disciplined mind and can control there selves. – Ribavirin is not recommended for women who are pregnant, contemplating pregnancy or cannot be able to use a reliable birth contol. – People experiencing some disease like lupus, rheumatoid

TREATMENTS AND CURE Cure – The chances of the patients to get better is depending on what type of hepatitis c virus. (i.e. genotype) In general the chances of genotype 1 is approximately 40 to 50 percent while for genotype 2 and 3 is approximately 80 percent. The patient must wait for 6 months to know if the treatment cured him/her and also wait for the therapy to be complete. They defined cure as the absence of virus for more than 6 months after stopping the therapy. Follow up studies of this people shows that there are no virus in the liver after 10 year.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • •

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MamasHealth, Inc.™. (2000-2009). The Human Liver: function, body location, disease of, picture, shape. November 12, 2009, from http://www.mamashealth.com/organs/liver.asp Alan Franciscus, Editor-in-Chief (2006). A Brief History of Hepatitis C. November 12, 2009, from http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/Brief_History_HCV_200 Steven Kobrin (2001-2008). Causes of Hepatitis C. November 19, from http://www.small-business-ideas.org/causes-of-hepatitis-c.shtml MediResource Inc. (1996-2009) Hepatitis C - Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Diagnosis - Condition Factsheets - C-Health. November 19, 2009. http://chealth.canoe.ca/condition_info_details.asp?disease_id=292 UpToDate, Inc. (2009) Hepatitis C. November 20, 2009. from http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~nVqO9/rmP3 BRIAN HAYNES. Las Vegas Review-Journal (1997-2009) HEPATITIS C OUTBREAK: LV police suggest charges - News - ReviewJournal.com. November 20, 2009. from http:// www.lvrj.com/news/lv-police-suggest-charges-70605177.html