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How Is Viral Hepatitis Diagnosed And Treated?

The diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis are needed immediately when the body shows signs of hepatitis. Diagnosis to find the correct disease and early treatment is extremely important to the patient’s ability to recover.

Avoid complications leading to liver failure, liver cancer that threatens the patient’s life. From there, it helps them to have a normal life without causing too much influence.

Learning About Hepatitis Virus

Viral hepatitis is an infectious disease caused by viruses. The consequences cause liver damage. This leads to impaired liver function, affecting the health of the patient.

Hepatitis is caused by many viruses. There are 5 main types of virus are hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis E virus (HEV), hepatitis G virus (HGV). Hepatitis can be caused by a virus or all three viruses attacking at the same time. In which, hepatitis A, B, C viruses are the most common.

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Viral hepatitis is an infectious disease caused by viruses

Hepatitis A virus: Vaccination is currently available. Hepatitis A virus was first discovered in 1973. The path of HAV virus infection through ingestion is often found in an unsanitary polluted environment. The disease develops benign, can be cured, but does not rule out the possibility of recurrence.

Hepatitis B virus: Hepatitis B virus has a DNA nucleus that is transmitted through the bloodstream. Currently, the proportion of people with hepatitis B is quite high, the disease usually develops quietly. However, vaccination is now available.

Hepatitis C virus: Discovered in 1989, so far there is no vaccine available. HCV is diverse and is transmitted through the bloodstream. The body’s immune response to the hepatitis C virus is poor. The patient has the ability to re-infection many times despite being cured.

Hepatitis E virus: The disease was discovered in 1991, the way is transmitted through the diet. HEV has a benign course. However, for pregnant women, especially in the last 3 months of pregnancy, if infected, there is a risk of being transformed into a malignant virus that affects their lives.

Hepatitis G virus: This type is rarer, but usually causes marked hepatitis. Initially, there is no clinical manifestation so it is difficult to recognize.

Clinical Symptoms

Patients often go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis after they notice signs of abnormality. Usually, when the disease progresses it manifests specific symptoms.

The first time will be the incubation period. Depending on the type of virus, there will be different incubation periods from 1 to 6 months. The hepatitis A virus has the shortest incubation period of about 1 – 6 weeks.

 Then the disease develops in 3 phases:

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Hepatitis in the onset stage causes anorexia, fatigue, digestive disorders

• Onset stage: The disease can develop silently with symptoms that easily cause confusion with other diseases such as fatigue, loss of appetite, digestive disorders, lower rib pain, high fever … Many cases of illness start suddenly.

• The stage of lethargy: Symptoms often appear in two forms. For the mild patient, suddenly a good improvement, appetite, better health. For critically ill patients who enter the stage of more severe disease such as fatigue, exhaustion, itchy skin, loss of appetite …

• The stage of regression and recovery: Clinical symptoms start to appear less and disappear. But the patient began to have episodes of polyuria.

Diagnosis of Hepatitis Virus

The initial diagnosis of viral hepatitis will be based on the symptoms and symptoms the patient provides to the doctor, then specific tests will be done to get the most accurate results.

Body symptoms

Normally, when people have acute hepatitis, there will be clinical signs such as fatigue, dark urine … Tests are conducted to identify them more clearly the disease.

For chronic HBV viral hepatitis, HCV usually has no specific symptoms. Only when the disease turns badly is usually not diagnosed at an early stage by symptoms.

Blood tests

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A blood test to diagnose viral hepatitis

To diagnose viral hepatitis virus usually has 3 types of tests:

The genetic material of the virus: To find the antibodies produced in white blood cells, made by the body to fight pathogens and viruses. Some types of virus antibody tests such as Anti-HAV, anti-human antibodies of HBV, antibodies to HBVe …

Liver enzymes: The liver test for liver enzymes is the most common test for hepatitis. When the liver is damaged, these liver enzymes are released into the bloodstream, causing the blood levels of liver enzymes to rise. People with acute viral hepatitis often have a very high level of liver enzymes in the blood. For people with chronic hepatitis, the concentration of liver enzymes increases only slightly but lasts for quite a long time.

Hepatitis virus antibodies and proteins: Includes HBV Surface Antigen, HBV DNA, HCV RNA, and HBV e Antigen.

Other diseases often have symptoms similar to those of acute hepatitis. Therefore, in order to rule out other causes of the disease, doctors can perform some other tests and ultrasound of the abdomen.

Treatment of Hepatitis Virus

Diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis through diagnosis and testing, from which doctors will have treatment with special anti-viral drugs to reduce the condition.

Treatment of acute viral hepatitis

To treat acute hepatitis, patients need to rest more, avoid overwork, try to keep a relaxed and optimistic spirit.

To alleviate the symptoms of acute hepatitis such as fatigue, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances … Doctors will prescribe different special medicines depending on the patient’s condition.

Patients also need to be cautious in taking medicines. It is best to consult the treating doctor, especially pain relievers and sedatives. Because when the liver is hepatitis, the liver function will work worse than normal, it can easily lead to the drug can accumulate in the blood when reaching a certain level, it will be toxic.

Alcohol is a harmful agent to the liver. If you do not want to get worse, you should limit or eliminate completely drinking alcohol. When the patient is vomiting, fluids will be administered to avoid loss of fluid and should be promptly treated in the hospital.

Treatment of chronic hepatitis

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The course of treating hepatitis is different for each stage of the disease

For the treatment of hepatitis, chronic HCV requires antiviral drugs. If the virus is removed successfully, the patient will avoid falling into a dangerous situation from the stage of hepatitis to cirrhosis or liver cancer that threatens the patient’s life.

For patients with chronic hepatitis should absolutely give up stimulants such as alcohol and tobacco. Stimulants will make the disease worse quickly and difficult to control.

The process of treating viral hepatitis can be complex, requiring good patient-doctor coordination. The most important thing is to follow-up periodically to monitor disease progress for the best treatment and control regimen.

There are cases when using drugs to control the disease, do not need hospital treatment. However, medications for chronic hepatitis are not always effective. Therefore, patients are not subjective to self-treatment at home but need regular monitoring through the diagnosis and treatment of the doctor in each stage.

Prevention of Hepatitis Virus

Understanding what viral hepatitis is and the way it is transmitted helps us to be proactive in preventing the disease as follows:

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Wash your hands before eating to limit oral infections

• Hepatitis A: Passed by mouth. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure food hygiene and safety, and living environment. Have good personal hygiene and wash your hands before eating and after using the toilet.

• Hepatitis B: Passed through blood such as from mother to child, having sex, touching open wounds of infected people, using needles … When you suspect that you have hepatitis, first aid is required. Clean the wound and get medical attention immediately.

• Hepatitis C: The same as hepatitis B that is spread through the bloodstream. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately wash the wound and get checked by a hospital for antiviral drugs.

• Hepatitis D: The vaccination is an effective preventive measure.

• Hepatitis E: The same as hepatitis A that is spread by mouth. So, keeping clean, avoiding the habit of putting dirty hands in the mouth is an effective way to prevent hepatitis infection.

In addition to using drugs, patients should pay attention to a number of issues in daily life and nutrition to help the disease get better.

• Limit harmful fats from food, add enough nutrients.

• Get reasonable rest, avoid staying up late or doing strenuous work.

• Exercising in accordance with your own condition.

Besides, it is necessary to have full vaccination and periodical health examination even though there are no symptoms of the disease.

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Limit harmful fats from food, add enough nutrients to prevent hepatitis

When there are signs of hepatitis need to go to the hospital to diagnose and treat the virus if it turns out that you have the disease. This helps the doctors to promptly prevent complications that are dangerous to health. Above all, proactively protecting your health with regular checkups and healthy eating is essential.

The site cannot and does not contain medical advice. The medical information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals.