A focus on hepatitis, a liver disease that makes little news and little fear, helped establish the World Hepatitis Day is celebrated every year on May 19. An opportunity to raise awareness and the political world to a viral disease that affects so silent and insidious and occurs over time, when the organ damage is already advanced and difficult to reverse.

Hepatitis never disappeared

The experts, who met for a conference “Hepatitis Summit 2010 (May 18), agree that these diseases, in the form B and form C, respectively, caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and of ‘hepatitis C virus (HCV) represent a public health problem and as such should be included in projects under the National Plan of Prevention Centre of Disease Control Ministry of Health. And talk of an emergency underground, ie a disease apparently disappeared but, instead, still exists. Thanks to campaigns in the 90s and the introduction of compulsory vaccination against HBV in 1991 for infants and adolescents 12 years, it was possible to monitor and control the infection. “There was a decline in new infections with HBV,” says Ivan Gardini, chairman of the EPAC patients with liver disease, “but there is a re-emergence due to immigration from highly endemic countries (East Europe, Russia , China, South Mediterranean basin) and a group of unvaccinated, infected when the virus spread in an uncontrolled way. ” Estimates of the Higher Institute of Health are about 600 thousand carriers of HBV and one million and 600 thousand carriers of HCV virus for which, moreover, there is no vaccine, and only the improvement of hygiene standards in the years allowed to reduce new infections. Although hepatitis C, therefore, remains a problem, especially from the clinical point of view, since 60-70% of liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and requests for transplantation are attributable to HCV and the available treatments are not effective in advanced stages of infection.

One of the most problematic aspects of hepatitis is not knowing that he contracted the infection: viral hepatitis in early stage are treatable with medications to eradicate the virus, but if undiagnosed become chronic and may remain silent for more than 20 years and then appear with very serious complications that result in 10 thousand deaths each year. “In Italy, unfortunately, is not made targeted prevention, with screening at least at-risk groups’ points Gardini” and a first test access for all based on the analysis of transaminase levels, indicative of an infection ” . According to experts, in fact, the strategy for the identification of carriers is subjected to serological tests for hepatitis B and C family members and sexual partners of infected people, drug addicts, prison inmates, immigrants from areas of high HBV and HCV prevalence, sexually promiscuous people, those with HIV infection, the sons of carrier mothers, health professionals, the hemodialysis, those who undergo tattooing or piercing in places with low standards of sterilization. Finally do not forget that hepatitis B and C have a serious impact on the everyday person who discovers that he contracted the virus: “The mere fact of knowing that you have a communicable disease has an emotional impact,” Gardini said “there is the fear of infecting the children and their loved ones, and sometimes you do not follow the therapy for fear of having to communicate at work, since the therapy has side effects visible (flu, fatigue, fever, physical weakness) and lasts 6-12 months. The quality of life suffers, if one adds the damage to the liver, liver cirrhosis and heart failure until the cancer, the problems that come are truly unsustainable. “

http://www.thepressnet.org/247/the-liver-under-viral-attack

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