ABC's of Viral Hepatitis

A few days ago my wife came home with a shocking story about how a driver in her office had been asked to go for a full medical evaluation. A few days later he came back with the result dancing, he was HIV negative, a colleague of hers asked to see the result and there it showed he was positive to Hepatitis B.

'But you have hepatitis B'

'yes i see am. That one is no problem'

'My friend you need to go get your wife and children tested before you infect them'

'madam, that na no dey kill person' 

He ended the conversation, snatched the test results out of her hands and danced out of the office to continue his celebration with the other ignorant drivers in the office.

I wasn't surprised at all, i have seen well educated men people who have no idea what the virus does, do i blame them, maybe not. The governments in Africa have refused to do anything regarding the virus in terms of awareness. The best you see are banner displays in clinics and hospitals telling people they can get tested and get their results in 25 minutes. No one says why the virus is dangerous or why they should even get tested for it. I bet a lot of people in Africa see the disease as a flu virus which they think isn't life threatening as well

Hepatitis will kill you without you even knowing. A lot of people go years without symptoms. Save your life get tested. Surviving the virus is easy just get tested.

Viral hepatitis refers to infections caused by viruses that directly attack the liver. Chronic cases of viral hepatitis can lead to life-threatening liver cirrhosis (or scarring), liver failure and liver cancer.

The most common forms of viral hepatitis are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and hepatitis D.

 

Type of Viral Hepatitis	Mode of Transmission / Prevention
Hepat	Contaminated food and water / Preventable through vaccination
Hepatitis B	Infected blood, sex, and needles. From an infected mother to her newborn. Preventable through vaccination
Hepatitis C	Infected blood and needles. NO VACCINE
Hepatitis D	Must already have hepatitis B. Infected blood, sex, and needles. From an infected mother to her newborn. Get the hepatitis B vaccine.
Hepatitis E	Contaminated water. NO VACCINE