World Hepatitis Day 2023: One Life, One Liver – Facts, History, and Types of Hepatitis

KOMPAS.com – World Hepatitis Day (WHD) is always celebrated on July 28 every year.

Quoted from WHO, World Hepatitis Day 2023 carries the theme “One Life, One Liver” or “One Life, One Heart”.

The theme means that each person has only one life with the ownership of one heart.

The liver is known to perform more than 500 vital functions every day to keep a person alive.

According to data, more than one million hepatitis-related deaths every year and one new chronic infection every ten seconds.

Therefore awareness to maintain liver health and prevent hepatitis is very important.

Also read: World Hepatitis Day, Here are 6 Facts about Hepatitis

History of World Hepatitis Day

Reporting from Nature, a Greek doctor named Hippporates 2,000 years ago described a disease with a yellowing skin condition known as jaundice.

Then a doctor or geneticist from the United States (US) named Baruch Samuel Blumberg found the causes and prevention of this disease.

Blumberg discovered an antigen in the blood of an Australian Aboriginal that became the surface antigen for the hepatitis B virus.

The findings eventually led to tests to screen blood donors for the hepatitis virus and vaccine.

In the late 1950s, when Blumberg was working at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), he discovered irregularities in the cholesterol-carrying protein as a result of genetic polymorphisms.

Then in 1963, while heading the NIH’s Section of Medicine and Geographic Genetics, Blumberg and colleagues discovered a red antigen in the serum of a hemophiliac.

The antigen reacted with antigens in the serum of Aboriginal Australians, hence the name Australian antigen.

Nevertheless, many people dispute the findings but Blumberg’s further research.

Also read: Hepatitis: Symptoms, Causes, and How to Prevent it

In 1964, shortly after Blumberg moved from NIH to Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, he and colleague Tom London continued to do further research.

Blumberg and London found that although the Australian antigen was found at high prevalence in Down’s patients as a group, it was absent in newborns.

Not inherited, but rather the presence of antigens in the blood of Down syndrome patients seems to correlate with their lives in mental health institutions.

This was the first hint that the Australian antigen might be linked to an infectious agent.

The specific infection was identified as hepatitis B when two Down syndrome patients and a researcher in the Blumberg lab were found to carry the antigen only after developing acute hepatitis.

A US company called Abbott Laboratories developed a test to screen blood donors for antigens. The test can reduce the incidence of hepatitis B associated with blood transfusions.

The test also identified pregnant women carrying the virus and came up with measures that reduced mother-to-child transmission by up to 90 percent.

In the late 1960s, Blumberg and Irving Millman at Fox Chase separated the small, non-infectious Australian antigen particles from the virus and turned them into a hepatitis B vaccine.

This vaccine is also the first cancer vaccine, because the hepatitis B virus is the main cause of liver cancer.

For his discovery, Blumberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976.

Then WHO set July 28 every year as World Hepatitis Day since 2010.

The date was taken from the birthday of Baruch S. Blumberg who died in 2011 at the age of 85.

Also read: 5 Case definitions in acute hepatitis and explanations

Types of hepatitis

Quoted from the NHS, there are seven hepatitis which are mostly caused by viruses. Here are the details of each type:

1. Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is caused by the hepatitis A virus when consuming contaminated food and drink from an infected person.

Hepatitis A usually goes away within a few months, but in some cases it can become severe and even life-threatening.

There is no specific treatment for this type of hepatitis, apart from relieving symptoms such as pain, nausea and itching.

2. Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus, which is spread in the blood of an infected person.

This type is a common infection that occurs worldwide and is usually spread from infected pregnant women to their babies, unprotected sex, or injecting drug use.

Most adults infected with hepatitis B are able to fight off the virus and recover within a few months.

However, many sufferers are infected when they are children, so they develop long-term infection or chronic hepatitis B.

This type of hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. However, there are already antivirals that can be used to treat it.

3. Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus, which is usually spread through blood-to-blood contact with an infected person.

Such contact includes poor health care practices and unsafe medical injections, or through needles used to inject drugs.

Hepatitis C often causes no visible symptoms, or only flu-like symptoms, so many people don’t realize they are infected.

Some people can fight this type of hepatitis infection and get rid of the virus soon.

But in some cases, this virus will remain in the body for years (chronic hepatitis C) and can cause cirrhosis and liver failure.

Chronic hepatitis C can be treated with antiviral drugs which are really very effective.

Also read: How to prevent transmission of acute hepatitis and symptoms to watch out for

4. Hepatitis D

Hepatitis D is caused by the hepatitis D virus. This disease only affects people who are already infected with hepatitis B.

This is caused by the type of hepatitis D requiring the hepatitis B virus to survive in the body.

Hepatitis D is usually spread through blood-to-blood contact or sexual contact. Long-term infection can increase the risk of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer.

However, until now there is no specific vaccine for hepatitis D, but the hepatitis B vaccine can help protect against the virus that causes this disease.

5. Hepatitis E

Hepatitis E is caused by the hepatitis E virus, which is associated with the consumption of meat, raw or undercooked pork offal, wild boar meat, venison, and shellfish.

This type of hepatitis is generally a mild and short-term infection, which does not require any treatment.

However, in some cases, the symptoms can be serious in those with weak immune systems.

There is no vaccine for hepatitis E so to reduce the risk, it is necessary to pay attention to good food and water hygiene.

6. Hepatitis alcoholic

Alcoholic hepatitis is a type of hepatitis caused by consuming excessive amounts of alcohol over many years.

This type of hepatitis usually doesn’t cause any symptoms, but in some people it can cause sudden jaundice and liver failure.

If left untreated and continue to consume alcohol excessively, the long-term effects can develop cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer.

7. Autoimmune hepatitis

Autoimmune hepatitis is a rare cause of chronic hepatitis, in which the immune system attacks and damages the liver.

People with autoimmune hepatitis, the liver can become so damaged that it is unable to work properly. Treatment of this type of hepatitis involves drugs that suppress the immune system and reduce inflammation.

It is not clear what causes autoimmune hepatitis and it is not known what actions can be taken to prevent it.

Also read: Viral about cupping and blood donors are said to be able to transmit hepatitis, this is what the doctor said

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2023-07-27 22:45:00
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