Hepatitis

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, usually caused by a viral infection. The liver is responsible for filtering out from the bloodstream harmful substances such as dead cells, toxins, fats, an overabundance of hormones, and a yellowish substance called bilirubin that is a byproduct of the breakdown of old red blood cells. If the liver is inflamed, tender, and enlarged, it becomes unable to function normally. As a result, toxin that normally be filtered out by the liver build up in the body, and certain nutrients are not processed and stored as they should be. The symptoms of hepatitis include fever, weakness, nausea, vomiting, headache, appetite loss, muscle aches, joint pains, drowsiness, dark urine, light-colored stools, abdominal discomfort, and often, jaundice (yellowing of the skin due to an accumulation of bilirubin) and elevated liver enzymes in the blood. Flulike symptoms may be mild or severe.

There are different types of hepatitis, classified according to the virus that causes the condition. Scientists have identified the viruses responsible for three leading types of the disease, called hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

Hepatitis A, also known as infectious hepatitis, is easily spread through person-to-person contact, fecal contamination of food or water, and raw shellfish taken from polluted water. It is contagious between two to three weeks before, and one week after, jaundice appears.

Hepatitis B, also referred to as serum hepatitis, is spread through contact with infected blood (for example, from mother to child at birth or through the use of contaminated syringes, needles, and transfused blood) from adults to children living together in close contact, throught sexual activity, and through blood transfusions. Most people – 75 percent – recover from hepatitis B, although 25 percent go on to develop cirrhosis or cancer of the liver.

Hepatitis C, the most serious form of hepatitis, is four times more prevalent than AIDS and twenty times easier to catch. About 85 percent of infections lead to chronic liver disease. The virus causes slowly progressing but ultimately devastating damage to the liver. In additon, people with HCV often have elevated levels of iron in the liver. This also can cause liver damage.