Hepatitis B (HBV) is a viral disease of the liver, discovered by Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg in 1967. As a medical anthropologist, a doctor who studies human health and disease, Blumberg was very interested in the genetics of disease susceptibility. He started a study to see if inherited traits made different groups of people differently susceptible to the same disease. He and his team collected blood samples from around the world, and planned to look for gene differences, and see if the differences could be associated with the disease. The study could not be completed however, so Blumberg focused his study on hemophiliacs. He collected blood samples from hemophiliacs who had received multiple blood transfusions. Since the donated blood would not
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Patients are to treat it like a normal sickness, and are told to rest, and take in a lot of fluids and food. Acute HBV will last 1-6 months. Chronic HBV however is harder to treat. There is no cure, but doctors will try to prevent the damage of the liver. People who are at risk for serious liver damage can be given antiviral medications, such as Epivir, Hepsera, Tyzeka, and Baraclude, which decreases the ability for the virus to reproduce. Intron A is a synthetic version of a substance produced by one’s body to fight infection. Intron A is mostly used for younger people diagnosed with HBV who wouldn’t want to go through long-term treatment, or might get pregnant, as to not infect the child. This medication does have its side effects though, including depressions, difficulty breathing, and chest tightness. If there is serious damage to the liver, such as cirrhosis, cancer, or the liver fails, the last resort is a liver transplant. A patient will be put under anesthesia, and a surgeon will remove the damaged liver and replace it with a healthy liver from a (normally deceased) donor. According to an analysis of 379 patients; “the estimated 5-year survival rates were 97% for patients with chronic persistent hepatitis, 86% for those with chronic active hepatitis, and 55% for those with chronic active hepatitis with cirrhosis. The usual cause of death was liver failure and its sequelae.” (Weissberg JI, Andres LL, Smith CI, Weick S, Nichols JE, Garcia G, Robinson WS, Merigan TC, Gregory
Patients are to treat it like a normal sickness, and are told to rest, and take in a lot of fluids and food. Acute HBV will last 1-6 months. Chronic HBV however is harder to treat. There is no cure, but doctors will try to prevent the damage of the liver. People who are at risk for serious liver damage can be given antiviral medications, such as Epivir, Hepsera, Tyzeka, and Baraclude, which decreases the ability for the virus to reproduce. Intron A is a synthetic version of a substance produced by one’s body to fight infection. Intron A is mostly used for younger people diagnosed with HBV who wouldn’t want to go through long-term treatment, or might get pregnant, as to not infect the child. This medication does have its side effects though, including depressions, difficulty breathing, and chest tightness. If there is serious damage to the liver, such as cirrhosis, cancer, or the liver fails, the last resort is a liver transplant. A patient will be put under anesthesia, and a surgeon will remove the damaged liver and replace it with a healthy liver from a (normally deceased) donor. According to an analysis of 379 patients; “the estimated 5-year survival rates were 97% for patients with chronic persistent hepatitis, 86% for those with chronic active hepatitis, and 55% for those with chronic active hepatitis with cirrhosis. The usual cause of death was liver failure and its sequelae.” (Weissberg JI, Andres LL, Smith CI, Weick S, Nichols JE, Garcia G, Robinson WS, Merigan TC, Gregory