Hepatitis Causes and Symptoms

What is hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. Most adults who get hepatitis B have it for a short time and then get better. This is called acute hepatitis B.

You can have hepatitis B and not know it. You may not have symptoms. If you do, they can make you feel like you have the flu. But as long as you have the virus, you can spread it to others.
Sometimes the virus does not go away. This is called chronic hepatitis B. Over time, it can damage your liver. Babies and young children infected with the virus are more likely to get chronic hepatitis B.

What causes hepatitis B?

Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is spread through contact with the blood and body fluids of an infected person. Hepatitis B is one of the most easily spread (contagious) forms of viral hepatitis, which includes hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. However, hepatitis has many other causes, including some medications, long-term alcohol use, fatty deposits in the liver, and exposure to certain industrial chemicals.

How HBV is spread?
HBV is spread when blood, semen, or vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood) from an infected person enter another person's body, usually in one of the following ways:

• Sexual contact:The hepatitis B virus can enter the body through a break in the lining of the rectum, vagina, urethra, or mouth. Sexual contact is the most important risk factor for the spread of HBV in North America.

• Sharing needles: People who share needles and other equipment (such as cotton, spoons, and water) used for injecting illegal drugs may inject HBV-infected blood into their veins.

• Work-related exposure: People who handle blood or instruments used to draw blood may become infected with the virus. Health care workers are at risk of becoming infected with the virus if they are accidentally stuck with a used needle or other sharp instrument infected with an infected person's blood, or if blood splashes onto an exposed surface, such as the eyes, mouth, or a cut in the skin.

• Childbirth. A newborn baby can get the virus from his or her mother during delivery when the baby comes in contact with the mother's body fluids in the birth canal (perinatal transmission) . However, breast-feeding does not transmit the virus from a woman with HBV to her child.

• Body piercing and tattoos. HBV can be spread when needles used for body piercing or tattooing is not properly cleaned (sterilized) and HBV-infected blood enters a person's skin.

• Toiletries:Grooming items such as razors and toothbrushes can spread HBV if they carry blood from a person who is infected with the virus.
In the past, blood transfusions were a common means of spreading HBV. Today, all donated blood in the United States is screened for the virus, so it is extremely unlikely that you could become infected with the virus from a blood transfusion.

Contagious and incubation periods

Symptoms appear an average of 60 to 90 days (although they can appear 45 to 180 days) after you have contact with the hepatitis B virus (incubation period). Blood, semen, and vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood), whether fresh or dried, are highly contagious (HBV can be easily spread) during this period and for several weeks after the onset of symptoms.

• Blood contains the highest quantities of the hepatitis B virus.

• Blood and other body fluids that contain the virus can remain contagious for at least a
week and possibly much longer, even if they are dried.
If you have a short-term HBV (acute) infection, you usually cannot spread the virus after antibodies against the surface antigen of HBV appear. This generally takes several weeks. If you have a long-term (chronic) HBV infection, you are able to spread the virus as long as the condition lasts.

A mother who has the virus can pass it to her baby during delivery. If you are pregnant and think you may have been exposed to hepatitis B, get tested. If you have the virus, your baby can get shots to help prevent the virus.
You cannot get hepatitis B from casual contact such as hugging, kissing, sneezing, coughing, or sharing food or drinks.

What are the symptoms?

Less than half of those with short-term (acute) hepatitis B infections have symptoms. Symptoms include:
• Jaundice (the skin and whites of the eyes appear yellow). Although jaundice is the defining sign of hepatitis B, it does not occur in most cases. Jaundice usually appears after other symptoms have started to go away.
• Extreme tiredness (fatigue).
• Mild fever.
• Headache.
• Loss of appetite.
• Nausea.
• Vomiting.
• Constant discomfort on the right side of the abdomen under the rib cage, where the liver is located. In most people, the discomfort is made worse when their bodies are jarred or if they overwork themselves.
• Diarrhea or constipation.
• Muscle aches.
• Joint pain.
• Skin rash.

Measles symptoms and causes

Measles, a highly infectious disease, is very common in childhood. It is so common at this stage of life that nearly all children in most parts of the world suffer form it.

Measles symptoms
Feverishness, cold, watering of the eyes
The first symptoms that appear for seven to fourteen days after exposure to the virus are feverishness, cold, watering of the eyes, and a dry cough. A rash appears on the skin four days after the onset of these symptoms. This rash, which consists of small rounded spots with reddened skin in between, initially appears on the sides of the face and the neck, and then gradually spreads allover the body, appearing last on the extremities. Initially pink in color, the spots grow darker as time passes.

Fever and diarrhea

Measles is usually accompanied by fever and diarrhea. In severe cases, high fever and delirium may occur. Complications which can arise from this disease include pneumonia, bronchitis, and abscesses in the ears. One serious but rare complication is inflammation of the brain.

Measles and the Symptoms:
First 2 to 3 days
· Very high fever (up to 105 degrees).
· Cold like symptom, including a runny nose: a dry cough: swollen glands: red, watery eyes, loss of appetite and aching muscles.
A day or two later
· Inside the mouth, painless small gray or white bumps, like grains of salt surrounded by red rings.
In another day
· Small red spots that first appear on the face and the neck. As they spread down the body, they join to form large blotches.

Measles causes

Virus
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases caused by a virus. This disease is easily transmitted in the early stages through the invisible droplets of moisture, which are discharged from a patient's nose or mouth when he coughs or sneezes.

Wrong feeding habits and unhygienic living conditions

The real causes of this disease, like other diseases of childhood, are however; wrong feeding habits and unhygienic living conditions.

Common Cold / Running Nose Symptoms and Causes

A common cold, also known as acute coryza, is an inflammation of the upper respiratory tract caused by infection with common cold viruses. A common cold occurs more often than any other disease - hence, its name. A person may suffer from a common fold several times in a year. A cold usually lasts from three to ten days. The patient feels miserable for the first three days or so.

Common Cold Symptoms

Soreness of throat, congestion of nasal passages

The initial signs of a cold are a feeling of soreness of the throat and congestion of the nasal passages. Although the disease normally begins in the nose and throat, it affects all parts of the body.

Running nose, Sneezing, headache, chill

Its usual symptoms are a running nose, sneezing, a rise in temperature, headache, sore throat, chill, aches and pains in the body, and loss of appetite. The skin around the nostrils may become sore.

Causes of Common Cold

Exposure to the virus

A common cold results from exposure to the virus. Its intensity, however, depends upon the state of health of the person and environmental factors.

Exposure to cold, low vitality, dust, changes in temperature

Low vitality, exposure to cold, lack of sleep, mental depression, fatigue, and factors such as sudden changes in temperature, dust, and other irritating inhalations are important contributory causes.

IS CHICKEN POX Dangerous?

IS CHICKEN POX Dangerous?

Chicken pox is a highly contagious disease, occurring usually in children. It usually affects children of three to four years of age. In most cases, the older the child, the more severe the attack.


Chicken Pox Symptoms

Low grade fever, a mild headache and weakness
Chicken pox usually begins with a low grade fever, a mild headache and a feeling of weakness.

Rash appears on the upper chest or back
A rash appears on the skin on the first day of the disease. This is in the form of tiny red spots on the skin, mostly on the upper back or chest. In more severe cases, a rash may appear on the face and lower extremities. The papules turn into blisters and finally become pustules and form scabs, which fall off. They come in successive crops, so that while some are drying, others are beginning to form. The skin clears after a few days and the child feels well again. The duration of this disease ranges from ten to twenty-one days but is usually between fourteen and seventeen days.


Causes of Chicken Pox

Virus

Chicken pox is caused by a virus

Serious condition such as Shingles or herpes zoster
Many researchers believe that the disease is closely related to a much more serious condition known as shingles or herpes zoster that affects adults.

Persistent wrong feeding of children

The basic cause of the disease, as in most cases of childhood fevers, is however, persistent wrong feeding of children, which results in diminished defence mechanisms of the body.