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ASK THE CONDOM DOC
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Hepatitis - ( Hep -uh-tite -us)
Cause:
Three viruses that infect the liver: Hepatitis A Virus (HAV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV).
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Incubation Period: Symptoms start showing in three to 20 weeks (5 months) after you first get infected by the virus.
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Transmission:HAV is found in feces (stool, shit). You can get it from someone by anal contact. That is, by rimming them with your mouth, or, for example by being exposed to their stool through food. Like if a restaurant worker doesn't wash their hands after taking a dump.
You can get HBV by being exposed to the bodily fluids of someone who already has it. These bodily fluids include blood (for example, sharing needles when shooting up drugs), semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk, and saliva. Because of this, it's easy to pass HBV from parents to children, too.
Risky sexual activities include insertive and receptive oral sex (blow jobs, rimming, and cunnilingus), anal sex, and vaginal sex. Unless bodily fluids are exchanged, you can't get viral hepatitis from foreplay, fondling, massaging, or hugging someone, and even kissing seems to be low risk.
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What to Look For: In the first stage of hepatitis infection, there are the symptoms of nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and headaches. These symptoms aren't unique to viral hepatitis, so it's hard to know if you have it just from these signs. Your health provider can do blood tests to see if you really have it or not.
In the next stage, all the lymph nodes in your body swell ("swollen glands"), and liver damage occurs. There is a lot of pain on the right side of the belly. Usually, a person's eyes and skin turn yellow. This is a sign that the liver isn't working very well.
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Treatment: In the last stage of hepatitis, a person recovers from the disease. It just takes a lot of rest to get back to normal, but there may be permanent liver damage. A recovering person may also feel tired all the time. Also, in hepatitis B and hepatitis C, some people have "chronic active" hepatitis. This is where the infection continues throughout their life until the liver fails. They will need a liver transplant to get better. And others may carry the virus and infect others, but not have symptoms themselves.
You can get vaccinated against HBV, and this is done in children all the time now. Ask your health provider if you don't know whether or not you've been vaccinated.
There are medications that health providers can give to patients for the long-term problems with viral hepatitis. 'Interferon' and 'lamivudine' are the names of two drugs that help you fight off the virus. But the disease usually just has to run its course, and the medication doesn't always work very well. New medications are being tested, but nothing is 100% certain.
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Complications: If the liver is so damaged that it just can't work, then it is possible that the infected person will die. A transplant can save their lives. A very damaged liver can also cause bleeding from the stomach, as well as injury to the kidneys, lungs, and brain. Some people have "chronic" hepatitis, which means that they have an infection for the rest of their lives, and never totally get over it.
Also, the viruses that cause viral hepatitis can cause cancer of the liver, and it's not all that rare!
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HEPATITIS
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