Read statement below, in response to your peers, compare their findings to your own and suggest levels of prevention to reduce incidences of the disease.
“Infectious or communicable disease can be defined as an illness caused by another living agent, or its products, that can be spread from one person to another”(Ameli, 2016, para 2) Hepatitis B is a communicable disease that is a global health concern affecting people of all races, age, and genders. The CDC reports, 257 million people are infected worldwide, 786,000 deaths occur yearly, and more than a million people are living with chronic HBV in the U.S. (CDC, 2021) Hepatitis B is potentially a life-threatening liver infection that is caused by the Hepatitis B virus.
(Tripathi et al., 2021) The virus is passed through as semen, vaginal secretions, blood, or bodily fluid of an infected individual. Hepatitis B is preventable but commonly passed from mother to child through vertical transmission at birth or through horizontal transmission such as IV drug use, sex with infected partner, exposure by direct contact to blood, needle sticks, razors, toothbrush, medical equipment, and hemodialysis. (Tripathi et al., 2021) Major risk factors include sex with an infected person, children born to an infected mother, history of IV drug use, people living with infected individuals, healthcare workers, and those who are unvaccinated. HBV is usually detectable through blood work within 1-2 weeks.
Maclachlan et al (2015) states that countries who chronic have more than 8% of the population infected with HBV the majority of exposure occurred at birth or in early childhood, when the risk of progression to chronicity is high. Prevention measure such as vaccination has reduced the transmission rate greatly in certain parts of the world such as North American, Northern Europe and Western Europe. “The highest prevalence of up to 12% among adults was estimated to occur in Western sub-Saharan Africa, followed by East and Southeast Asia and the remaining parts of sub-Saharan Africa with estimates of 5%–7% HBsAg prevalence among adults”(Maclachlan et al, 2015, para. 19) Prevalence for children under the age of 12 in the U.S. is low due to preventative measures and screening. (Maclachlan et al., 2015)
Individuals affected with HBV have acute symptomatic or acute asymptomatic (identified through screening) resolving in weeks, or long term and chronic, lasting a lifetime. 95% of those infected have either acute symptomatic or asymptomatic. “During the acute infection, patients can have subclinical or anicteric hepatitis, icteric hepatitis, or less commonly fulminant hepatitis. In chronic infection, patients can have an asymptomatic carrier state, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma”(Tripathi et al., 2021para. 2). Those who contact the virus earlier in life such as children tend to develop chronic HBV.
Symptoms are dependent on severity of infection and include anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and jaundice, or hepatic encephalopathy, ascites, gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to esophageal varices, coagulopathy, other infections. Chronic cases can develop cirrhosis, liver damage, cancer, and death. Treatment of HBV chronic cases consist of treating the symptoms and antiviral medications, Acute cases are treated for symptoms and replacing fluids and nutrition loss from gastrointestinal symptoms. To date prevention and vaccination are essential in fighting transmission of HBV.
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