Hepatitis B&C Overview
What is hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver . Most adults who get it have it for a short time and then get better. This is called acute hepatitis B.
Sometimes the virus causes a long-term infection, called chronic hepatitis B. Over time, it can damage your liver. Babies and young children infected with the virus are more likely to get chronic hepatitis B.
You can have hepatitis B and not know it. You may not have symptoms. If you do, they can make you feel like you have the flu. But as long as you have the virus, you can spread it to others.
What causes hepatitis B?
It’s caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is spread through contact with the blood and body fluids of an infected person.
You may get hepatitis B if you:
- Have sex with an infected person without using a condom.
- Share needles (used for injecting drugs) with an infected person.
- Get a tattoo or piercing with tools that weren’t sterilized.
- Share personal items like razors or toothbrushes with an infected person.
- A mother who has the virus can pass it to her baby during delivery. Medical experts recommend that all pregnant women get tested for hepatitis B. If you have the virus, your baby can get shots to help prevent infection with the virus.
You cannot get hepatitis B from casual contact such as hugging, kissing, sneezing, coughing, or sharing food or drinks.
What are the symptoms?
Many people with hepatitis B don’t know they have it, because they don’t have symptoms. If you do have symptoms, you may just feel like you have the flu. Symptoms include:
- Feeling very tired.
- Mild fever.
- Headache.
- Not wanting to eat.
- Feeling sick to your stomach or vomiting.
- Belly pain.
- Tan-colored bowel movements (stools).
- Dark urine.
- Yellowish eyes and skin (jaundice). Jaundice usually appears only after other symptoms have started to go away.
Most people with chronic hepatitis B have no symptoms.
How is hepatitis B diagnosed?
A simple blood test can tell your doctor if you have the hepatitis B virus now or if you had it in the past. Your doctor also may be able to tell if you have had the vaccine to prevent the virus.
If your doctor thinks you may have liver damage from hepatitis B, he or she may use a needle to take a tiny sample of your liver for testing. This is called a liver biopsy.
Sometimes the virus causes a long-term infection, called chronic hepatitis B. Over time, it can damage your liver.
What is Hepatitis C?
This infection of the liver is caused by the hepatitis C virus. About 3.9 million people in the U.S. have the disease. But it causes few symptoms, so most of them don’t know.
There are many forms of the hepatitis C virus. The most common in the U.S. is type 1. None is more serious than any other, but they respond differently to treatment.
What Are the Symptoms?
Many people with hepatitis C have no symptoms. But you could notice these:
- Jaundice (a condition that causes yellow eyes and skin, as well as dark urine)
- Stomach pain
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Fatigue
How Do You Get It?
The virus spreads through the blood or body fluids of an infected person.
You may have or contract Hepatitis C if:
- Were born between 1945 and 1965.
- Have been on long-term kidney dialysis.
- Have HIV.
- Were born to a mother with hepatitis C
- Have symptoms of liver disease
Are There Any Long-Term Effects?
Yes. About 75% to 85% of people who have it develop a long-term infection called chronic hepatitis C. It can lead to conditions like liver cancer and cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver. This is one of the top reasons people get liver transplants.
How Is It Treated?
Hepatitis C treatments have changed a lot in recent years. In August 2017, the FDA approved a daily combination pill of glecaprevir and pibrentasvir called Mavyret. This medication offers a shorter treatment cycle of 8 weeks for adult patients with all types of HCV who don’t have cirrhosis and who have not been previously treated. The length of treatment is longer for those who are in a different disease stage. The prescribed dosage for this medicine is 3 tablets daily.
Several other medications are available that are also taken as once-a-day medications. The once-daily pill combination of elbasvir and grazoprevir called Zepatier has been shown to have the ability to cure the disease in as many as 97% of those treated. It follows the success of another once-daily treatment called Harvoni that cures the disease in most people in 8-12 weeks. Harvoni combines two drugs: sofosbuvir and ledipasvir. In clinical trials, the most common side effects in both drugs were fatigue and headache.
Vosevi is a combination of sofosbuvir, velpatasvir and voxilaprevir that has been approved to treat adults with chronic HCV, either with no cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis who have already had certain treatments.
Other drugs include daclastasvir (Daklinza), ombitasvir-paritaprevir-dasabuvir-ritonavir (Viekira Pak), ombitasvir-paritaprevir-ritonavir(Technivie), and sofosbuvir-velpatasvir (Epclusa).
Instead, your doctor could recommend a combination of simeprevir (Olysio) or sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) with peginterferon, which you take by injection, and ribavirin, which comes as a liquid, tablet, or capsule.
Interferon and ribavirin used to be the main treatments for hepatitis C. They can have side effects like fatigue, flu-like symptoms, anemia, skin rash, mild anxiety, depression, nausea, and diarrhea.
Your treatment will depend on many things including what type of hepatitis C virus you have. In the U.S., the most common type is genotype 1, followed by genotypes 2 and 3. Genotypes 4,5, and 6 are very rare in the U.S. Your doctor will help you figure out what’s right for you, based on your medical needs and insurance coverage.
What Are the Side Effects?
The most common effects of hepatitis C drugs depend on the particular medicine and may include:
- Flu-like symptoms
- Fatigue
- Hair loss
- Headache
- Low blood counts
- Trouble thinking
- Nervousness
- Depression
Can You Prevent Hepatitis C Infection?
There’s no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. To help avoid getting the virus:
- Use a latex condom every time you have sex.
- Don’t share personal items like razors.
- Do not share needles, syringes or other equipment when injecting drugs.
- Be careful if you get a tattoo, body piercing or manicure. The equipment may have someone else’s blood on it.
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