Spreading awareness on water-borne hepatitis need of the hour, says Dr Sahni

Mohali, July 27, 2024: Screening and early detection are the only ways to tackle hepatitis, also known as the silent killer. The disease can cause chronic liver damage, without symptoms, until it reaches the terminal illness stage in the form of liver cancer or liver cirrhosis. While the various forms of Hepatitis are A, B, C, D and E, vaccination is available for Hepatitis A and B.

To raise awareness on hepatitis and its related complications, World Hepatitis Day is observed on July 28 every year. The theme of World Hepatitis Day-2024 is “It’s time for action”. To commemorate World Hepatitis Day, an informative session was organised at Fortis Hospital here today. The session was headed by Dr Arvind Sahni, Director Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Fortis Hospital, Mohali.

While speaking on the occasion, Dr Sahni, said, “Cases of Hepatitis A and E are quite common during the monsoon season and are transmitted by contaminated water and food. Both the viruses are transmitted through the fecal oral route, which happens when an uninfected person ingests water or food that has been contaminated with fecal matter of an infected person. On the other hand, Hepatitis B and C are blood-borne viruses which are spread through contaminated blood, blood products, contaminated needles, syringes etc.”

Dr Sahni further said, “The exact prevalence of Hepatitis A and E is difficult to estimate. The case fatality rate of hepatitis A is age related with an approximately death rate of 0.3% which increases almost 5 times beyond the age of 50 years. Hepatitis E has a very high mortality in pregnancy which is 15-25%.”

Stating that spreading general awareness about hepatitis was the need of the hour, Dr Sahni, added, “General awareness about sanitation, boiling of water, avoidance of eating cut and open food items, elimination of open defecation and managing municipal solid waste via modern techniques are some of the measures to help and control the spread of hepatitis A and E.”

Elaborating on who all are at risk of getting hepatitis A and E, Dr Sahni, said, “These include intravenous drug abusers, HIV positive patients, household contacts of infected patients, people who live in poor sanitary condition, people who lack safe water supply, men who have sex with men, following travel to endemic countries in which there is high risk of hepatitis A and E.”

Symptoms of Hepatitis A or E

Children under 5 years of age infected with Hepatitis A are usually asymptomatic and develop jaundice very rarely. The usual symptoms are fever, nausea, malaise, loss of appetite, headache, abdominal pain, dark colored urine and jaundice. In general, the severity of disease and fatal outcome are higher in older age groups. Almost everyone recovers fully from Hepatitis A and E.

When to contact a doctor

In case of severe persistent vomiting, deep jaundice, drowsiness, bleeding from nose or mouth or extreme lethargy.

Diagnosis

Specific diagnosis of Hepatitis A and E can be easily made by laboratory testing of blood for IgM antibodies against Hepatitis A or E.