Hepatitis B

The treatment involves suppressive therapy with acyclovir or valalcyclovir. These can also be used in the treatment of recurrence. Antiviral agents can reduce the chance of spreading the disease. The longer a person has this, the less likely they are to have a recurrence.

Herpes genital infections affect about 16 percent of young people so it is a commonly transmitted organism. About 80 percent of infected people have no symptoms. There is no screening done in the US. While pornography actors are tested for most other genital infections, herpes is not tested for.

HEPATITIS B

Hepatis B can be transmitted through sexual contact or contact with infected blood. It is transmitted by the HBV virus and affects the liver both acutely and chronically. While many will have no symptoms, those that do will ha malaise, vomiting, yellowed skin, abdominal pain, and dark urine. The symptoms last several weeks after an incubation period of 30 to 180 days. Babies can get infected around the time of birth, with 90 percent ultimately developing chronic hepatitis B infections. The main side effects of chronic hepatitis include cirrhosis and liver cancer with some having liver failure.

The disease is passed through blood and body fluid contact. IV drug abuse and sexual intercourse are the most common ways to transmit the disease although, if the infection is prevalent in a community, vertical transmission from mother to child is the most common way to contract the disease. It is not easily passed through blood transfusions, tattooing, acupuncture, or living with a victim, although these were once more common before screening and sterilization practices. Kissing and hugging cannot pass the disease. Breastfeeding cannot pass the disease.

Some patients have no symptoms, while others get an acute hepatitis B infection with jaundice being common. Figure 16 shows what jaundice looks like:

Figure 16.

While most people with hepatitis B are sick for a few weeks and recover, some will have severe and fulminant hepatitis leading to death. Others will develop a chronic hepatitis B infection that will either be asymptomatic or mild. Those with chronic disease can go on to having hepatitis or liver cancer.

Hepatitis B is up to 100 times more infectious than HIV disease. The chances of vertical transmission of HBV to a fetus is about 20 percent during the pregnancy. Rarely, the disease can be transmitted to household contacts, usually through open skin. Breastfeeding cannot transmit the virus.

Hepatitis B cannot be easily tested for, particularly in the beginning of the infection. Blood or serum can be tested for antigens, which are virus-related proteins, and antibodies, which are produced by the host in response to the infection. Hepatitis B surface antigen is tested to see if there are live viruses in the bloodstream. It is the first thing that can be detected in an acute infection and does not disappear in a chronic infection. There will be antibodies developing as the patient fights off the infection.

There is a vaccine that can be used to prevent hepatitis B. It is currently given in three doses, starting at one day of life. Patients can be tested for antibodies to see if they have