STD Symptoms, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Symptoms & Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Test London

What are they

Hepatitis is a virus that can cause chronic long-term illness and permanent damage to the liver if left untreated. Hepatitis is most frequently passed on through the exchange of bodily fluids with an infected person. The virus is spread through sexual intercourse, needles (including tattoo instruments), and mother to child. Hepatitis is estimated to be 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV.

Symptoms

Flu-like illness, nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, itchy skin, weight loss, loss of appetite, jaundice. People may develop chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Hepatitis C (HCV) is currently thought to affect over 200,000 people in the UK alone. Most of these people do not know they have it. It is spread via needles, unprotected sex, transfusions and mother to child.

Other Adverse Consequences

More infectious than HIV, and therefore if the mother is unaware she carries the virus, her baby could be at a high risk of becoming seriously ill and a carrier themselves.

Test

Blood.

Treatment

Anti-retroviral drugs. There is a vaccine available for Hepatitis B, and it is important to determine if you are positive and planning to give birth as if your baby is treated within the first 12 hours of life, he or she has more than a 90% chance of being protected against a lifelong Hepatitis B infection.