World Hepatitis Day July 28
How are you today? Healthy greetings are always for all of us, and this day is also commemorated as "World Hepatitis Day on July 28".
World Hepatitis Day (WHD) is always commemorated on July 28 every year.
Quoted from WHO, World Hepatitis Day 2023 this time carries the theme "One Life, One Liver".
"One Life, One Liver" World Hepatitis Day (WHD) theme
The theme means that everyone has only one life with ownership of one heart.
The liver is known to perform more than 500 vital functions every day to keep a person alive.
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| Illustrative image (Picture: affinityhealth.co.za) |
According to the 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.
History of World Hepatitis Day
Reporting from Nature, a Greek doctor named Hippocrates 2,000 years ago described a disease with a yellowing skin condition called jaundice.
Then the doctor or geneticist of the United States (US) named Baruch Samuel Blumberg discovered the cause and prevention of this disease.
Blumberg found an antigen in the blood of an Aboriginal in Australia that became the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus.
The findings eventually led to tests to screen blood donors for the virus and hepatitis vaccines.
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In the late 1950s, when Blumberg was working at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), he discovered irregularities in cholesterol-transporting proteins as a result of genetic polymorphisms.
Then in 1963, while heading the NIH's Department of Medicine and Geographic Genetics, Blumberg and his colleagues found a red antigen in the serum of a hemophiliac.
The antigen reacted with the antigen in the serum of the Australian Aborigines, later named the Australian antigen. However, many people dispute the findings, but Blumberg's research is further.
In 1964, shortly after Blumberg moved from the NIH to Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Blumberg and his colleague Tom London continued to conduct further research.
Blumberg and London found that although the Australian antigen was found in high prevalence in Down patients as a group, it was absent in newborns.
Instead of being inherited, the presence of antigens in the blood of Down syndrome patients seems to correlate with their lives in mental health institutions.
It was the first clue 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 Blumberg's 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. Such tests can reduce the incidence of hepatitis B associated with blood transfusions.
The test also identified pregnant women who carried the virus and produced measures that reduced mother-to-baby transmission by 90 percent.
In the late 1960s, Blumberg and Irving Millman at Fox Chase separated small, noninfectious Australian antigen particles from the virus and turned them into hepatitis B vaccines.
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.
The 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 years.
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, other than by relieving symptoms such as pain, nausea, and itching.
2. Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus, which spreads in the blood of an infected person. This type is a common infection that occurs worldwide and is usually spread from an infected pregnant woman to her baby, having unprotected sex, or intravenous drug use.
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Most adults infected with hepatitis B can fight off the virus and recover within a few months. However, many sufferers are infected as children, so they develop long-term infections or chronic hepatitis B. This type of hepatitis can cause 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 contacts include poor health care practices and unsafe medical injections, or syringes used to inject drugs.
Hepatitis C often causes no visible symptoms, or only flu-like symptoms, so many people are unaware that they are infected. Some people can fight off this type of hepatitis infection and soon be free of the virus.
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 really very effective antiviral drugs.
4. Hepatitis D
Hepatitis D is caused by the hepatitis D virus. This disease only attacks people who have been infected with hepatitis B. It is caused by the type of hepatitis D that requires 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. There is no specific vaccine for hepatitis D, but the hepatitis B vaccine can help protect against the virus that causes the 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. Alcoholic hepatitis
Alcoholic hepatitis is a type of hepatitis caused by consuming excessive amounts of alcohol over many years. This type of hepatitis usually does not 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, to liver cancer.
7. Autoimmune hepatitis
Autoimmune hepatitis is a rare cause of chronic hepatitis, in which the immune system will attack and damage the liver. In patients 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 yet clear what causes autoimmune hepatitis and it is not yet known what measures can be taken to prevent it.
Healthy greetings... Hopefully with "World Hepatitis Day on July 28" we always maintain health and avoid hepatitis.