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Does Hepatitis Cause Back Pain

When To See Your Doctor

4 Simple Steps To Ease Acute Lower Back Pain

Always check with your doctor if you have any of the signs of hepatitis. If you don’t get treatment it can lead to cirrhosis, a serious scarring of your liver.

Also make an appointment if a friend or member of your family comes down with the disease. There’s a risk you could get infected, too.

Be on the lookout for symptoms of hepatitis if you travel to a country where the disease is common. Call your doctor if you think you’re showing any signs.

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Previous Liver Biopsy Or Liver Surgery

Liver biopsies:

Some diseases may require a biopsy through a specialized needle from the liver. The most common complication of this technique is liver pain .

The pain following biopsy is often in the upper right upper abdomen and radiates to the right shoulder and the back.

If you recently underwent a liver biopsy, consult your doctor for liver pain in the back.

Previous liver surgery:

Operations such as liver resection, liver transplantation can cause persistent postoperative liver pain.

Postoperative pain can be felt anywhere, including the upper right abdomen and the chests right side. Also, liver pain can be felt in the back and the right shoulder.

What Are The Risk Factors For Getting Hepatitis B

Due to the way that hepatitis B spreads, people most at risk for getting infected include:

  • Children whose mothers have been infected with hepatitis B.
  • Children who have been adopted from countries with high rates of hepatitis B infection.
  • People who have unprotected sex and/or have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection.
  • People who live with or work in an institutional setting, such as prisons or group homes.
  • Healthcare providers and first responders.
  • People who share needles or syringes.
  • People who live in close quarters with a person with chronic hepatitis B infection.
  • People who are on dialysis.

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Treating Hepatitis C Matters

When you see your doctor and start treatment for a chronic hep C infection, you can prevent these problems, improve them, or keep them from getting worse. New drugs can clear the virus from your body in a few months with fewer side effects than older medicines. If thereâs no virus in your blood 3 months after treatment, youâre considered cured.

Getting rid of the infection protects others, too. Hepatitis C spreads through blood-to-blood contact. You could infect a loved one if you accidentally use their toothbrush or cut yourself and donât clean up the blood properly. People who get hep C treatment greatly lower the odds that they will pass the virus to someone else.

If you arenât sure if you have hepatitis C, talk to your doctor to see if you should get tested. Learn why you should get tested for hepatitis C.

Joint And Muscle Pain

Symptoms of Acute Hepatitis

A condition called arthralgia causes joint pain and is common in people with hepatitis C. Itâs different from arthritis, which causes pain and swelling in joints. But infected people can also get hepatitis C-related arthritis.

Fibromyalgia, which causes body aches and muscle pain, is also common in people with hepatitis C.

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How Is Hepatitis B Treated

Your healthcare provider will treat you based on what type of hepatitis B you have, acute or chronic.

Acute hepatitis B infections

If you develop an acute form of the condition, you probably wont need medical treatment. Instead, your doctor will likely suggest that you get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids and maintain a healthy diet to support your body as it fights off the infection.

Chronic hepatitis B infections

If you have chronic hepatitis B, you might be a candidate for drug therapy. Usually, drug therapy is used only if you have active liver disease. There are seven drugs that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat hepatitis B. Two are injectable forms of interferon, while the five other antivirals are tablets.

You will need to take these medications every day. They help by slowing the viruss ability to multiply in your system. This helps reduce swelling and liver damage. Youll need to be regularly monitored for early signs of liver damage and liver cancer. Your healthcare provider will want to see you once or twice a year.

Lower Right Back Pain From Internal Organs

There are numerous possible sources of lower right back pain in the organs of the mid-back, abdominal, or pelvic regions. Pain may start following inflammation or irritation of an internal organ, or may be a sign of infection. These conditions will usually produce other symptoms with lower right back pain that more specifically narrow down the source.

Several common internal causes of lower right back pain include:

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How Long Does It Last

Hepatitis A can last from a few weeks to several months.

Hepatitis B can range from a mild illness, lasting a few weeks, to a serious, life-long condition. More than 90% of unimmunized infants who get infected develop a chronic infection, but 6%10% of older children and adults who get infected develop chronic hepatitis B.

Hepatitis C can range from a mild illness, lasting a few weeks, to a serious, life-long infection. Most people who get infected with the hepatitis C virus develop chronic hepatitis C.

Is There A Cure For Chronic Hepatitis B

How to diagnose a hepatitis E infection.

Currently, there is no complete cure for hepatitis B. But when managed properly, those living with the virus can expect to live a normal life. Maintaining a healthy diet and avoiding alcoholic beverages and tobacco products are crucial components in managing the disease.

You should also visit a doctor familiar with hepatitis B at least annuallythough twice a year might be best to monitor your liver through blood tests and medical imaging. As with most diseases, detecting it early leads to a better outcome. If youre exposed to the virus, you should get an antibody injection within 12 hours of exposure.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Chronic Hepatitis B

About 1 in 20 people who get hepatitis B as adults become carriers, which means they have a chronic hepatitis B infection. Carriers are more likely to pass hepatitis B to other people. Most carriers are contagious meaning they can spread hepatitis B for the rest of their lives.

Hepatitis B infections that last a long time may lead to serious liver diseases like cirrhosis and liver cancer. About 1 in 5 people with chronic hepatitis B die from it. There are medicines that can help treat chronic hepatitis B infections.

Most babies who get hepatitis B develop chronic infection, unless they get treated right away. But treatments almost always work if your baby gets them quickly. Thats why its important for pregnant people to get tested for hepatitis B.

Which Fruit Is Best For Liver

Fill your fruit basket with apples, grapes and citrus fruits like oranges and lemons, which are proven to be liver-friendly fruits. Consume grapes as it is, in the form of a grape juice or supplement your diet with grape seed extracts to increase antioxidant levels in your body and protect your liver from toxins.

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Does Hepatitis Cause Flu Like Symptoms

Symptoms of hepatitis A include flu-like symptoms, such as fever, nausea, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. Hepatitis A may also cause jaundice, a condition that makes the skin and eyes look yellow and causes stool to become light in color and urine to become dark. Hepatitis A is a short-lived, or acute, disease.

What Causes Hepatitis A

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The hepatitis A virus causes this type of hepatitis and spreads through contact with an infected persons stool. Contact can occur by

  • eating food made by an infected person who did not wash his or her hands after using the bathroom
  • drinking untreated water or eating food washed in untreated water
  • placing a finger or an object in your mouth that came into contact with an infected persons stool
  • having close personal contact with an infected person, such as through sex or caring for someone who is ill

You cannot get hepatitis A from

  • being coughed on or sneezed on by an infected person
  • sitting next to an infected person
  • hugging an infected person

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What Is Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is a viral infection that causes liver inflammation and damage. Inflammation is swelling that occurs when tissues of the body become injured or infected. Inflammation can damage organs.

Viruses invade normal cells in your body. Many viruses cause infections that can be spread from person to person. The hepatitis A virus typically spreads through contact with food or water that has been contaminated by an infected persons stool.

Hepatitis A is an acute or short-term infection, which means people usually get better without treatment after a few weeks. In rare cases, hepatitis A can be severe and lead to liver failure and the need for an emergency liver transplant to survive. Hepatitis A does not lead to long-term complications, such as cirrhosis, because the infection only lasts a short time.

You can take steps to protect yourself from hepatitis A, including getting the hepatitis A vaccine. If you have hepatitis A, you can take steps to prevent spreading hepatitis A to others.

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Who Should Be Tested

Testing for hepatitis A is not routinely recommended.

CDC recommends hepatitis B testing for:

  • Men who have sex with men
  • People who inject drugs
  • Household and sexual contacts of people with hepatitis B
  • People requiring immunosuppressive therapy
  • People with end-stage renal disease
  • People with hepatitis C
  • People with elevated ALT levels
  • Infants born to HBV-infected mothers

CDC recommends hepatitis C testing for:

  • All adults aged 18 years and older
  • All pregnant women during each pregnancy
  • About 24,900 new infections each year
  • About 22,600 new infections in 2018
  • Estimated 862,000 people living with hepatitis B
  • About 50,300 new infections in 2018
  • Estimated 2.4 million people living with hepatitis C

Can Hcv Treatment Cure The Joint Pain

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According to the American College of Rheumatology, 97% of people that take direct-acting antivirals for HCV fully recover from the virus. In many cases, treating the infection improves or completely cures any joint pain.

For this reason, it is important to seek testing and treatment as soon as possible to prevent any long-lasting damage to the joints. In the meantime, joint and liver specialists should work together to help manage a persons joint pain in a safe and effective way, as certain arthritis drugs may not be suitable for those with HCV.

For example, several RA drugs can damage the liver. If a person already has some liver damage due to advanced HCV, these drugs will not be suitable for them. Anti-tumor necrosis factor drugs appear to be safe for use in people with HCV, and researchers are testing more.

Anyone who suspects they may have HCV should speak with a doctor as soon as they can. This may be because they have new or unexplained symptoms, because they have several risk factors for contracting HCV, or both.

Tell a doctor about any:

  • joint pain or stiffness
  • tiredness that is causing difficulty with daily activities
  • low-grade fever

These symptoms do not necessarily mean a person has HCV, but a doctor can investigate the cause and find out.

It is also important to tell a doctor about any risk factors that make contracting HCV more likely. These include:

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Arthritis Caused By Illnesses

Having arthritis certainly increases your risk for migrating joint pain, but that doesnt mean its the only cause of migratory arthritis. Rheumatic fever, an inflammatory illness, is a common cause of migratory arthritis. This fever stems from strep throat and can cause joint swelling and pain, among other complications.

Other inflammatory illnesses that may cause migratory arthritis are:

How Is Hepatitis B Diagnosed

There are three main ways to diagnose HBV infection. They include:

  • Blood tests: Tests of the blood serum shows how your bodys immune system is responding to the virus. A blood test can also tell you if you are immune to HBV.
  • Abdominal ultrasound: An ultrasound uses sound waves to show the size and shape of your liver and how well the blood flows through it.
  • Liver biopsy: A small sample of your liver tissue is removed though a tiny incision and sent to a lab for analysis.

The blood test that is used to diagnose hepatitis B is not a test that you get routinely during a medical visit. Often, people whove become infected first learn they have hepatitis B when they go to donate blood. Blood donations are routinely scanned for the infection.

The virus can be detected within 30 to 60 days of infection. About 70% of adults with hepatitis B develop symptoms, which tend to appear an average of 90 days after initial exposure to the virus.

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Hepatitis B And Liver Cancer

Some individuals infected with HBV have an increased risk of developing liver cancer . Identifying who is at the highest risk of developing liver cancer is important so that healthcare professionals can take steps to monitor the patient appropriately and detect any disease at an early stage.

Fortunately, if detected early, there are many effective therapies available. It might be beneficial for some patients to have regular abdominal imaging with ultrasound every six months to screen for liver cancer. However, not everyone with hepatitis B needs to have regular ultrasound surveillance and patients should discuss this with their healthcare providers.

Treatment Of Acute Viral Hepatitis

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  • Supportive care

  • Antiviral drugs for acute hepatitis C

For most people with acute viral hepatitis, special treatment is not necessary. However, people with severe acute hepatitis may require hospitalization so that symptoms can be treated. If doctors suspect that fulminant hepatitis is developing, the person is hospitalized so that mental status can be monitored, liver tests can be done, and doctors can determine whether liver transplantation is needed.

After the first several days, appetite usually returns and people do not need to stay in bed. Severe restrictions of diet or activity are unnecessary, and vitamin supplements are not required. Most people can safely return to work after the jaundice clears, even if their liver test results are not quite normal.

People with hepatitis should not drink alcohol until they have fully recovered.

The infected liver may not process drugs normally. So a doctor may need to stop a drug or reduce the dosage of a drug that could accumulate to harmful levels in the body . Thus, people with hepatitis should tell their doctor all the drugs they are taking , so that the dosage of the drug can be adjusted if necessary.

If itching occurs, cholestyramine, taken by mouth, is often effective.

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Who Should Be Vaccinated

Children

  • All children aged 1223 months
  • All children and adolescents 218 years of age who have not previously received hepatitis A vaccine

People at increased risk for hepatitis A

  • International travelers
  • Men who have sex with men
  • People who use or inject drugs
  • People with occupational risk for exposure
  • People who anticipate close personal contact with an international adoptee
  • People experiencing homelessness

People at increased risk for severe disease from hepatitis A infection

  • People with chronic liver disease, including hepatitis B and hepatitis C
  • People with HIV

Other people recommended for vaccination

  • Pregnant women at risk for hepatitis A or risk for severe outcome from hepatitis A infection

Any person who requests vaccination

There is no vaccine available for hepatitis C.

Diagnosis Of Acute Viral Hepatitis

Doctors suspect acute viral hepatitis based on symptoms. During the physical examination, a doctor presses on the abdomen above the liver, which is tender and somewhat enlarged in about half of the people with acute viral hepatitis.

Doctors suspect fulminant hepatitis if

  • People are very ill and develop jaundice very quickly.

  • Mental function quickly deteriorates.

  • Blood tests to determine how quickly blood clotsâprothrombin time or international normalized ratio âare abnormal.

  • People who have liver disease start worsening rapidly.

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Who Should Be Vaccinated For Hepatitis B

All newborns should be vaccinated. Also, people who are under 18 who were not vaccinated at birth should also get the vaccine. Other groups who should be sure to be vaccinated are those in certain high-risk categories, such as:

  • People who have more than one sexual partner.
  • Men who have sex with men.
  • Adults with diabetes.
  • Sexual partners of infected people and people who share households with infected individuals.
  • People who are exposed to blood and other bodily fluids, including healthcare and public safety professionals, and people who work in jails and other places taking care of people who cant take care of themselves.

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