What Is The Best Medicine For Hepatitis B

Can Hepatitis B Be Prevented

The hepatitis B vaccine is one of the best ways to control the disease. It is safe, effective and widely available. More than one billion doses of the vaccine have been administered globally since 1982. The World Health Organization says the vaccine is 98-100% effective in guarding against the virus. Newborns should be vaccinated.

The disease has also been more widely prevented thanks to:

• Widespread global adoption of safe blood-handling practices. WHO says 97% of the blood donated around the world is now screened for HBV and other diseases.
• Safer blood injection practices, using clean needles.
• Safe-sex practices.

You can help prevent hepatitis B infections by:

• Practicing safe sex .
• Never sharing personal care items like toothbrushes or razors.
• Getting tattoos or piercings only at shops that employ safe hygiene practices.
• Not sharing needles to use drugs.
• Asking your healthcare provider for blood tests to determine if you have HBV or if you are immune.

How Is Acute Hepatitis B Treated

Acute hepatitis B doesnt always require treatment. Most of the time, a doctor or healthcare professional will recommend monitoring your symptoms and getting regular blood tests to determine whether the virus is still in your body.

While you recover, allow your body to rest and drink plenty of fluids to help your body fight off the infection. You can also take an over-the-counter pain reliever to help with any abdominal pain you have. Speak with a doctor about which medications can help your symptoms.

See a doctor if your symptoms are severe or seem to be getting worse. You may need to take a prescription antiviral medication to avoid potential liver damage.

Like acute hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis B may not require medical treatment to avoid permanent liver damage. For some people, monitoring their symptoms and getting regular liver tests is an appropriate care regimen.

Treatment generally involves antiviral medications, such as:

• peginterferon alfa-2a injections
• antiviral tablets, such as tenofovir or entecavir

Antiviral medications can help to reduce your symptoms and prevent liver damage, but they rarely completely get rid of the hepatitis B virus. Instead, the goal of treatment is for you to have the lowest viral load possible. Viral load refers to the amount of a virus in a blood sample.

You can lower your risk of developing hepatitis B or spreading the virus to others by:

What Do I Need To Know About Having Hepatitis B

If you have chronic hepatitis B, getting the right medical care can help you stay healthy. Taking good care of your liver is important. Talk with your doctor before you take any prescription medication, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, or nutritional supplements to make sure they wont hurt your liver. You should also stay away from alcohol, because drinking can damage your liver.

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Can Hepatitis B Be Controlled By Eating Right And Exercising

It is important that people with liver disease follow a healthy, nutritious diet as outlined by Health Canada in Eating Well with Canadas Food Guide.

Alcohol can also damage the liver so it is best that people with hepatitis B do not drink. Following a healthy lifestyle may also prevent fatty liver disease, another liver disease highly prevalent in Canada.

However, hepatitis B cannot be controlled by healthy eating and exercise alone. Hepatitis B can only be controlled by currently available treatment as prescribed by your doctor. Your doctor will need to do regular blood tests to know how much of the active virus is in your blood . The viral load test is used to monitor and manage hepatitis B patients. Viral load can tell your doctor if you need treatment for hepatitis B and how well you are responding to treatment.

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How Do Doctors Treat The Complications Of Hepatitis C

If hepatitis C leads to cirrhosis, you should see a doctor who specializes in liver diseases. Doctors can treat the health problems related to cirrhosis with medicines, surgery, and other medical procedures. If you have cirrhosis, you have an increased chance of liver cancer. Your doctor may order an ultrasound test to check for liver cancer.

If hepatitis C leads to liver failure or liver cancer, you may need a liver transplant.

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Who Are Hepatitis B Carriers

Hepatitis B carriers are people who have the hepatitis B virus in their blood, even though they dont feel sick. Between 6% and 10% of those people whove been infected with the virus will become carriers and can infect others without knowing it. There are over 250 million people in the world who are carriers of HBV, with about 10% to 15% of the total located in India. Children are at the highest risk of becoming carriers. About 9 in 10 babies infected at birth become HBV carriers, and about half of children who are infected between birth and age 5 carry the virus. A blood test can tell you if you are a hepatitis B carrier.

What Is Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is an infection of your liver. Itâs caused by a virus. There is a vaccine that protects against it. For some people, hepatitis B is mild and lasts a short time. These âacuteâ cases donât always need treatment. But it can become chronic. If that happens, it can cause scarring of the organ, liver failure, and cancer, and it even can be life-threatening.

Itâs spread when people come in contact with the blood, open sores, or body fluids of someone who has the hepatitis B virus.

It’s serious, but if you get the disease as an adult, it shouldnât last a long time. Your body fights it off within a few months, and youâre immune for the rest of your life. That means you can’t get it again. But if you get it at birth, itâs unlikely to go away.

âHepatitisâ means inflammation of the liver. There are other types of hepatitis. Those caused by viruses also include hepatitis A and hepatitis C.

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Acute Hepatitis B Symptoms

There are three phases of acute hepatitis B infection, and symptoms may differ depending on the stage. Early in the disease, called the prodromal phase, symptoms may include:

• Dark urine and light stool color

During the icteric phase:

• Anorexia, nausea and vomiting may worsen
• Irritated skin lesions may develop
• Other symptoms may subside

Symptoms Of Hepatitis B

Newly acquired HBV infections only cause symptoms some of the time. The presence of signs and symptoms varies by age. Most children under age 5 years and newly infected immunosuppressed adults are generally asymptomatic, whereas 30%50% of persons aged 5 years have signs and symptoms .

Acute HBV infections can include

• Mild fever, and dark urine, and then progress to the development of jaundice.

Chronic infection

• Chronic inflammation of the liver ,
• Leading to cirrhosis over a period of several years.
• Hepatocellular carcinoma .
• Chronic carriers are encouraged to avoid consuming alcohol as it increases their risk for cirrhosis and liver cancer.
• Hepatitis B virus has been linked to the development of membranous glomerulonephritis .
• Serum-sicknesslike syndrome, acute necrotizing vasculitis ,
• Membranous glomerulonephritis,
• Papular acrodermatitis of childhood .
• The serum-sicknesslike syndrome occurs in the setting of acute hepatitis B, often preceding the onset of jaundice.
• The clinical features are fever, skin rash, and polyarteritis.

Overall Symptoms

• A general sense of feeling unwell
• feeling and being sick

Some acute HBV infections will resolve on their own, but some will develop into a chronic infection. Most persons with chronic HBV infection are asymptomatic and have no evidence of liver disease. However, some persons may develop chronic hepatitis , cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma .

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How Are Hepatitis A B And C Different

There are approximately 400 million people in the world who have been diagnosed with one form of hepatitis.

About 1.4 million people die from this disease annually, and what is most surprising is the fact that experts estimate that as many as 95% of people who have hepatitis do not know about this disease.

Left untreated, hepatitis, in one form or another, can cause permanent liver damage. We must be aware that patients with hepatitis usually have mild or no symptoms at all.

• 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

Chronic Hepatitis B Treatment

Antiviral medications are available to treat chronic hepatitis B, but these drugs don’t get rid of the infection.

Rather, they slow or stop the virus from damaging the liver, which helps prevent life-threatening hepatitis B complications particularly liver cancer and cirrhosis .

Drug treatments include Roferon-A or Intron A .

Long-acting forms of the drug, called Pegasys or PegIntron are also available, though not all drug treatments are approved for hepatitis B in all countries.

In 2015, researchers found that a cancer drug called birinapant was able to completely eliminate HBV infections in animal models, according to two studies in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The drug, which works by reversing the negative effects of HBV on the liver’s infection-fighting defenses, was able to clear infections twice as fast when used in combination with Baraclude.

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Natural Remedies And Hepatitis B

When we get sick, we want to get well quickly. Some of us turn to our doctors first, while others may try home remedies or alternative medicine. Many of us do both.

Natural medicine means that no chemicals, drugs or surgeries are used to help you get well. Alternative medicine is simply an alternative to conventional medicine. For instance, in the U.S., ancient healing practices, such as faith healing, Chinese medicine or seeing a curandero are alternatives. So are naturopathy, homeopathy, and herbal medicine. Integrative medicine uses both. Its common for people to use more than one healing method.

In the U.S., we have access to many alternatives, and we tend to apply Western medical concepts to natural medicine. This is most evident in our use of supplements. When diagnosed with hepatitis B, we may want to take something that will help the liver, such as a supplement or herb. Its easier to take something than it is to exercise and eat right. However, everything passes through the liver, and just because herbs and supplements are natural, they arent necessarily safe.

Despite claims on the Internet, no natural remedy has been proven to cure hepatitis B. There may be remedies that improve symptoms associated with hep B, but none has permanently eradicated the virus. There isnt a large body of research on natural remedies and hepatitis B much of what we know is anecdotal, meaning that people tell others about their experiences.

Milk Thistle

Mavyret Vs Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir For Hep C Genotype 3

This graph compares Mavyret with Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir for treating Hep C genotype 3. As you see Sof + Dac is superior to Mavyret

These two graphs are from separate studies. One shows cure rates for Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir across all genotypes of Hepatitis C and the other shows cure rates for Mavyret across all genotypes of Hepatitis C. The difference in cure rates is so small as to be relatively insignificant. In other words Mavyret or Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir could be said to be equally effective. The BIG difference lies in the price. A treatment with Mavyret will cost at least US,000 whereas a treatment using Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir will cost not more than US0.

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Combination Drug Therapy For Patients With Hepatitis C

During the first 6 months of the study, subjects will be asked to return to the outpatient clinic for routine check-ups and blood tests every 2 to 4 weeks. Blood tests will include tests for hepatitis C virus. If the virus test becomes negative on treatment, the therapy will be considered successful and will be continued for a full 6 or 12 months .

If the virus test does not become negative during the first six months of treatment, subjects will be considered non-responders and will stop taking interferon but will continue on ribavirin alone or an identically appearing placebo tablet. These non-responsive subjects will continue this therapy for an additional 12 months. .

Upon completion of the drug therapies, subjects will be requested to submit blood samples and undergo a liver biopsy to determine if the therapy was successful. Test results that reveal a loss of hepatitis C antibodies or normal levels of liver enzymes will be deemed successful.

How Does Harvoni Work

Harvoni directly blocks the ability of the hepatitis C virus to make copies of itself in the liver. Sofosbuvir interferes with the reproduction of the genetic material of the hepatitis C virus and ledipasvir works by interfering with a protein needed by the virus. Together, they greatly reduce and then stop the production of new copies of the hepatitis C virus. Over time, these actions eliminate the hepatitis C virus from the body.

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How Do I Treat My Hepatitis B

Not every patient with chronic hepatitis B needs to be on medication. Although there is no cure for hepatitis B, there are effective treatments that can reduce the risk of liver disease. However, if your ALT level is elevated , antiviral medication may be appropriate. There are currently 7 FDA-approved drugs to treat chronic HBV infection . Talk to your doctor about whether you are good candidate for drug therapy and make sure you discuss treatment rationale, options, side effects, and risks associated with each treatment.

Additionally, if you are chronically infected with hepatitis B and are starting cancer chemotherapy, you should be on HBV treatment to protect against potential flare-up of the hepatitis B infection and risk of liver failure.

What Is The Difference Between Hepatitis A B And C

Hepatitis is the combination of two words, Hepa or Hepatic means related to the Liver, and itis means infection. There are five main strains of hepatitis, namely, A, B, C, D, and E, with different etiologies. While some are caused by ingestion of contaminated food, some are caused by blood-to-blood or body fluids contact. According to WHO, 354 million people globally live with a hepatitis B or C infection. In the WHO European Region, an estimated 13.3 million people live with chronic hepatitis B and an estimated 15 million people with hepatitis C.

Adding to the alarming stats, as per the CDC , since the outbreaks were first identified in 2016, 37 states have publicly reported 44,241 cases, 27,029 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths as of May 6, 2022.

Even though the prevalence of Hepatitis is high, not many people know about the difference in the strains of Hepatitis viruses and their transmission route. Here, we have highlighted the main differences in hepatitis A, B, and C and how is it caused?

LetsLets begin by talking about,

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Low Response Rates And Nonresponders

Low vaccination response rates have been associated with obesity, smoking, immunosuppression , and advanced age. Approximately 25-50% of persons who initially do not have a vaccine response will show a response to one additional vaccine dose, and 50-75% of individuals will have a response to a fourth higher dose of Engerix B or Recombivax HB, or a second 3-dose series.

Postvaccine antibody titers do not need to be obtained in routine vaccinations of children or adults. It is recommended that testing for anti-HBs be obtained 4-12 weeks after vaccination in the following groups :

• Immunocompromised patients, including those on hemodialysis, HIV patients, and others
• Infants born to HBsAg-positive mothers
• Healthcare professionals
• Sexual partners of HBsAg-positive patients

Nonresponders, should be revaccinated with another series of 3-dose hepatitis B vaccine. Consider delaying revaccination for several months after initiation of antiretroviral therapy in patients with CD4 counts below 200 cells/mm3 or those with symptomatic HIV disease. The delay in these individuals is an attempt to maximize the antibody response to the vaccine.

Do not defer vaccination in pregnant patients or patients who are unlikely to achieve an increased CD4 count. Individuals at increased risk of severe complications due to HBV infection include those unlikely to achieve CD4 counts of 200 cells/mm3 or above after antiretroviral therapy and HIV-infected pregnant women.

What Is Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C 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 C virus spreads through contact with an infected persons blood.

Hepatitis C can cause an acute or chronic infection.

Although no vaccine for hepatitis C is available, you can take steps to protect yourself from hepatitis C. If you have hepatitis C, talk with your doctor about treatment. Medicines can cure most cases of hepatitis C.

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