- Doctor from Moscow's clinical hospital
#15 Alhares Heirbek talks about hepatitis and prevention of the disease
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- - Is the risk to catch hepatitis C higher
than risks to catch other diseases?
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- The virus of hepatitis C is more frequent
than that of hepatitis B. Some experts say there are about 500 million
people infected with hepatitis C today; 200 million of them are not mere
carriers of the virus but are infected.
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- - What are the ways to catch hepatitis
C?
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- The virus usually transmits through blood;
many drug addicted persons are infected with hepatitis C. People dealing
with donors and blood transfusion often catch the disease too. The virus
can be transmitted with spittle, sweat, tears and genital secretion through
wounded skin or mucous membranes. Young women form a risk group as they
may get infected with hepatitis C when visiting hairdresser's and beauty
shops if they use non-sterile tools. From this point, women should be careful
when they go to beauty shops to have manicure, hair style, epilation or
tattoo.
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- -Is hepatitis C particularly dangerous?
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- In 80 percent of cases the disease proceeds
secretly and reveals no symptoms. With 70-80 percent of patients infected
with hepatitis C acute hepatitis develops into chronic one, which in its
turn often develops into cirrhosis and liver cancer. What is more, doctors
do not have yet important knowledge and safe protection from the disease.
Today, medicine already has reliable methods to diagnose the disease and
effective medicine to cure it.
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- - Why does hepatitis C almost always
develop into chronic one?
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- This happens because of the virus's peculiarities.
When getting to the organism, it behaves the same way as other similar
viruses do and attacks liver. At that, the hepatitis A virus gets out of
the organism as soon as it achieves the goal, but the hepatitis C virus
will stay in the organism within several years or even for the whole life.
The virus became invulnerable because it may easily change its form and
continue to destroy liver.
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- - Do people feel anything at that?
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- It often happens so that doctors reveal
hepatitis C during other checkups. It may also proceed together with jaundice
and resemble the classical hepatitis. Jaundice is a serious disease as
well but at least it is easier to reveal it; it seldom develops into a
chronic form. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to say how hepatitis
C may become apparent: people may feel weakness, get tired easily, have
poor appetites and muscular pains. As a rule, people do not take such symptoms
seriously; if they visit doctors the disease is diagnosed as respiratory
infection or something else.
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- - What are the symptoms of chronic hepatitis
C?
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- People infected with hepatitis C feel
weakness and lethargy within several years; it is just in 10-15 years that
the disease comes out. In addition to weakness patients have pain in the
right subcostal area and lose too much flesh. Medical examination reveals
that liver is enlarged; blood tests prove that something is wrong with
liver. Then, patients will reveal all signs typical of cirrhosis: water
accumulation in the stomach, bleeding and intoxication.
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- - What methods does modern medicine use
to diagnose the disease?
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- There are no general checkups to reveal
patients diseased with hepatitis C in this country. Only people belonging
to the risk group or those who are suspected of the disease undergo special
blood tests. Blood tests demonstrate if there are antibodies to the virus
in blood. At that, all medical methods cannot help to say if the disease
is progressing too far. Biochemical blood tests determine to what extent
liver cells are damaged with a patient.
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- - Can the serious disease be cured?
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- Doctors say that 60 per cent of patients
successfully recover if medical treatment was started before hepatitis
C developed into a chronic form. Successful treatment of chronic hepatitis
C is registered just in 20-30 per cent cases. At that, women, especially
young ones, undergo medical treatment more successfully than men. Many
medicines have been developed recently to fight the virus. But antiviral
medicines depress brain activity. That is why treatment must be done together
with blood tests. Acute hepatitis C requires 3-month medical treatment
while the chronic form - 12 month-treatment. Together with the medicines,
doctors will prescribe to follow a diet.
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- - How can people prevent the dangerous
disease or protect themselves in case they communicate with people infected
with hepatitis C?
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- Be careful and do not risk for nothing.
Attend only reliable beauty shops and licensed medical institutions. Personal
hygiene must be in the focus in families with diseased people. Unfortunately,
doctors offer no vaccine against hepatitis C now, but they hope the problem
will be solved in the nearest future.
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