Learn About Hepatitis

Hepatitis is a silent disease. Chronic Hepatitis with Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C affects 1 in every 12 people in the world. Here is a video from the World Hepatitis Alliance for World Hepatitis Day 2012.

Spread
Hepatitis can spread in a vartiety of ways. Here is a chart which summarizes some basic facts about viral hepatitis.
Prevention
One of the most common ways for the spread of Hepatitis is through the reuse of syringes. Disposable sringes are meant to be used only once and then discarded. Reusing a syringe, even after cleaning, is very risky and is likely to spread infectious diseases such as Hepatits and HIV.BD is one of the leading manufacturers of disposable syringes in the world. Chughtais Lahore Lab uses only BD syringes. BD and CLL have together launched a campaign to raise public awareness about the importance of using a syringe only one time. The tag line for this campaign is ‘Aik Syringe, Aik Baar!’ CLL standard sample collection procedure from ChughtaiLab on Vimeo.
Vaccination
There is a vaccine available for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B.The vaccine for Hepatitis B is very effective in preventing HBV infection.Before you get the vaccine, please get the HBsAg test to make sure you have not already been exposed to Hepatits B.The vaccine is given in three doses as follows:

Dose 1: Today

Dose 2: After one month

Dose 3: After 6 months

People who had the vaccination more than ten years ago can get a booster shot at any time.

Diagnosis

Hepatits is diagnosed by a variety of lab tests. The first test to be performed is an ELISA test for antibodies or viral antigens to see if they are present in the blood.

Here are the most common tests performed for viral hepatitis:
Hepatitis B: HBsAg

Hepatitis C: Anti-HCV

If the results are borderline or positive, or if the doctor has a strong suspicion for infection, a PCR test may be performed. The PCR test detects even very small amounts of viral particles in the blood of the patient. Chughtais Lahore Lab performs the PCR test for Hepatitis B and C using the fully automated m200 PCR system from Abbott Molecular.

Treatment

There are some very good treatment options available for viral hepatitis. In most cases patients take oral medication for a period of 6 to 9 months. The effectiveness of the therapy is monitored by performing the quantitative PCR test for viral hepatitis to see if viral loads are declining.