Hepatitis and Your Daily Life

What is Hepatitis? It is the swelling and inflammation of the liver. It is not a condition, but is often used to refer to a viral infection of the liver.

Most of the people having Hepatitis do not know they have it. Why? Because (I am referring to Mauritius) they are not properly guided by their doctors and most of the time the government does not take them to be serious (which is bad because they eventually die a painful death).

Let's have a short word from the medical field: There are 4 types of Hepatitis; A,B,C,D. The killer one is Hepatitis C.

A fact: 95% of drug addicts in Mauritius have Hepatitis C and they don't even know it!
Research has shown that HIV Patients die mostly due to Hepatitis C. If they were treated, they would have lived much, much longer. Around 43000 people currently have Hepatitis C in Mauritius.

Many people are diagnosed too late and die. You could have family suffering from this but they don't know. The problem in Mauritius is that there is that there is not much or any focus on Hepatitis. The government does not seem to react. Cost of getting treated is around Rs500 000 privately. In public hospitals patients are not given the necessary attention.

What are the Common Symptoms?
 - Flu like
- Fatigue
- Abdominal discomfort
- Fever
- Nausea/vomiting
- Stomach ache
- Diarrhea
- Coloured urine
- Abnormal Stool
- Yellowish (eye/skin) [Jaundice]

Diagnosing Hepatitis
A primordial bedside is Jaundice (Icterus). Jaundice (also known as icterus) is a yellowish pigmentation of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclerae (whites of the eyes). Yellow discoloration of the plasma, skin and mucous membranes may be the earliest and only sign of hepatic dysfunction; it therefore requires urgent evaluation.

How do you get Hepatitis?

• Bad hygiene.
• By eating your feces (eww..there are persons like this unfortunately)
• Unsafe sex
• By sharing certain personal items such as toothbrush and razors
• Tattoes

How to prevent Viral Hepatitis?

• Vaccination (unfortunately there is no vaccine for Hepatitis C at this moment)
• Immune Globulin for traveling abroad
• Hand washing 
• Avoid used needles
• Safer sex
• Avoid sharing certain personal items such as toothbrush and razors

If you suspect any person suffering from Hepatitis the best to do is to convince them to go the hospital. Also, I recommend contacting HepSupport:

HepSupport
28, Clairfonds Road N0.2., Vacoas, Mauritius

Office: T: 00230 686 0805

Email: hepsupport@gmail.com

Statistics:
Viral hepatitis is a global public health problem affecting millions of people every year, causing disability and death. Around 500 000 000 people are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV or hepatitis C virus (HCV). Approx 1 000 000 death each year from causes related to ciral hepatitis most commonly liver disease including liver cancer.

Source: Doctors