World Hepatitis Day 2022: Every year, July 28 is celebrated as ‘World Hepatitis Day’ to raise awareness among people about the viral infections in the liver. Liver is the largest organ of our body, with almost the size of a football. The main function of the liver is to process the blood that leaves from the stomach and small intestines, and breaks it down and creates nutrients and supply it to the rest of the body. Hepatitis is an inflammation of our largest organ i,e liver which is largely brought by hepatitis infection A, B, C, D and E among other variables.
Theme 2022: Hepatitis infection can cause mild disease but some can be fatal. This year, World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted on “bringing hepatitis care closer to you”, to provide easy and accessible care to those suffering from any variant of hepatitis.
History: Every year July 28 is celebrated to raise awareness of the hepatitis virus and to make our world hepatitis free. On July 28 1965, American physician Dr Baruch Blumberg discovered the first hepatitis B virus, originally known as the ‘Australian Antigen’ for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Dr Blumberg later developed the first vaccine of hepatitisTo celebrate the discovery of the fatal virus, July 28 the day Dr Blumberg was born is celebrated as ‘World Hepatitis Day’ every year.
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Symptoms: Hepatitis infections can be acute or chronic, with mild or fatal symptoms. Hepatitis is an infection to our largest organ liver, which filters our blood and breaks into nutrients to provide it to our rest of the body. Infection or damage to this organ can affect our entire functioning of the body.
Different factors lead to the infections, some of them are- excessive drinking of alcohol, consumption of raw food, unhygienic preparation and consumption of food, hepatitis infection can be caused through blood, semen or feces from infected person as well or some medications can cause hepatitis infection.
Some of the symptoms of hepatitis include-
- Fever
- Fatigue
- Loss of appetite
- Nausuea
- Vomitting
- Abdominal pain
- Dark Urine
- Light-coloured stools
- Joint pain
- Jaundice
Precautions:
- Vaccination against hepatitis B and A
- Make sure to prevent mother-child transmission of the virus
- Reduce risk of infection by adopting safer sexual behaviour
- Reducing harm related to injecting drug use
- Reduce liver related harm, like stop consumption of alcohol etc
- Easy and accessible health care settings.