Hepatitis is a liver disease which is generally caused by a virus, while it also can be caused by overuse of alcohol or other toxins for longer period of time.
There are several different kinds of hepatitis and hepatitis B is a kind that can move from person to person through blood and other physical fluids. Moreover, sharing needles while taking drug or creating tattoos and sexual intercourse are another reason of getting it transmitted. Also, a pregnant woman can pass hepatitis B to her baby and it never spreads through an object such as a public toilet seat.
Symptoms of Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B has symptoms like other viral infections like the flu – for example, loss of appetite, tiredness, nausea, mild fever, vomiting and abdominal pain or tenderness underneath the right ribcage where the liver is located.
Hepatitis B also can cause jaundice, which turns the skin yellow and the whites of the eyes, and also may cause the urine to come out brownish.
How long until symptoms show?
Someone who has been contacted to hepatitis B may have its symptoms 1 to 4 months afterward. Some people with hepatitis B don’t perceive symptoms until the situation become quite severe. Some may have few or no symptoms at all, but even someone who doesn’t see any symptoms can still convey the disease to others.
What can occur with Hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B can be extremely dangerous to a person’s health, resulting to liver damage and an augmented risk of liver cancer. Around 90% of the to be born babies will have the hepatitis B virus from their mother unless they receive a particular immune injection and the initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine during birth.
How Can Hepatitis B be prevented?
Since hepatitis B can effortlessly be transmitted through blood and other body fluids, it may be prevented by:
• Refraining from all sorts of sex such as vaginal, oral or anal sex.
• Always using condoms for all kinds of sexual intercourse.
• Avoiding touch with an infected individual’s blood.
• Not taking intravenous drugs or sharing a drug paraphernalia.
• Not sharing toothbrushes or razors.
Sometimes tattoo parlors reuse needles without sterilizing them properly, so be sure to investigate and choose tattoo and piercing sources carefully.
To help stopping the spread of hepatitis B, it is advised by health care professionals to wear gloves at all times when you come in contact with body fluids or blood, and getting immunized against the fatal hepatitis B virus.
The hepatitis B vaccine is given as a sequence of three shots over a period of 6 months. Newborn babies in USA now regularly receive this immunization series. Also, teens who visit their health care provider for annual exams are also likely to be prescribed the hepatitis B vaccine if they haven’t had it already.
If someone has been lately exposed to the hepatitis B virus, the doctor may advise a shot of immune globulin that contains antibodies against the virus to give a try to prevent the patient from coming down with the dangerous disease. This is why, it’s especially significant to see a doctor fast after any possible contact to the virus.
How Can Hepatitis B be treated?
If you consider you may have hepatitis B virus or if you have been close with someone who may contain hepatitis B, you have to see a doctor or gynecologist. The doctor will do blood examinations, and if an analysis of hepatitis B is ready, you may also be treated with medications to help fight it.