Hepatitis

Our liver helps to digest food, store energy and remove poisons in our body. According to Medline Plus, hepatitis is the swelling of the liver that stops it from working well. It leads to scarring called cirrhosis, or to cancer.

Hepatitis are named according to the virus that cause it. Several types of viruses cause hepatitis. They are hepatitis A, B, C, D and E viruses that cause viral hepatitis. Approximately 100 Americans die from hepatitis A each year. (Hepatitis Foundation International)

Some quickfacts of Hepatitis A, B and C:

• In 2005, there were estimated 42000 people got infected by Hepatitis A.
• Hepatitis B virus is 100 times more infectious than HIV, the virus that cause AIDS.
• Every year 5000 Americans die from cirrhosis and 1000 die from liver cancer due to HBV infections.
• 80% of people affected by HCV can become chronically infected and risk serious long term clinical disease including cirrhosis and liver cancer.
• Generally Hepatitis spread from person to person through situations such as consuming food contaminated with infected feces, close physical contact with carrier, having sex with an infected partner, MSM and eating raw or partially cooked shellfish contaminated with HAV.

I went for Hepatitis testing last month and the medical reports revealed that I have "no evidence of past contact with the Hepatitis A virus" which means I am not infected with Hepatitis A.

It also shows that "Indicative of lack of protective immunity except in patients who has previously shown seroconversion" which generally means I am not vaccinated against the virus.

Hepatitis B Surface antigen (HBsAg) and Hepatitis A antibody : anti HAV (IgG) are not being detected inside my body. I got an "egg" for Hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) and it serves as an ultimatum, "YOU GO AND GET YOURSELF VACCINATED, ELSE YOU WILL BE INFECTED!"

I snapped my medical report from Gribbles Pathology as reference. I went for testing after knowing that one of my friend got infected from domestic sexual activities. He is known for not having hepatitis though he never went for vaccination. Discounting all other risk factors, he strongly suspect he got hepatitis from his partner, who has previously tested positive for HAV.

Go to the nearest clinic for consultation! Testing costs only RM30.00 - RM70.00 which is very affordable, considering that some cases of Hepatitis is incurable. For your rough budgeting, my vaccination plan consist of 3 jabs for HBV at RM40.00 per jab and 2 jabs for HAV at RM100.00 per jab in a period of 6 month.