Viral Hepatitis Flashcards
How is hepatitis A and E transmitted?
- transmitted by the fecal oral route
How is hepatitis B, C and delta spread?
- parenteral transmission
___ hepatitis must have a co-infection with hepatitis B
delta
How is hep A transmitted?
- fecal oral route
- person to person
- ingestion of contaminated food or water
What are the most common risk factors associated with hepatitis A?
- international travellers
- household or sexual contact with someone that has hep A
- men who have sex with men
- users of illegal drugs
- patients with chronic liver disease
Incubation of hepatitis A is approx. how many days?
- 28 days (ranges from 15-50)
Patients begin to shed the virus _______ after exposure
1-2 weeks
What is the progression of acute hepatitis?
- starts with prodromal period: nonspecific flu-like symptoms (some may be mild) such as anorexia, fatigue, malaise
- acute illness with abrupt onset of: anorexia, N/V, malaise, fever, headache, right upper quadrant abdominal pain
- icteric hepatitis: dark urine, light coloured stools, worsening of systemic sx, pruritus
What is the progression in the levels of liver enzymes with a hepatitis A infection?
- liver enzymes increase within the beginning few weeks of the infection, and peak around the 4th week – normalize by the 8th week
What are the symptoms likely experienced by children under 6 years old with HAV?
likely asymptomatic
What are the symptoms likely experiences by older children and adults?
- most present with symptoms lasting under 2 months, 70% of adults experience jaundice
What are the symptoms likely experienced in adults that have an HAV infection?
- peak viral shedding precedes GI symptoms in older adults
Is HAV a chronic infection?
- no, it does not
- some patients can experience symptoms for up to 9 months
What are the potential complications of a HAV infection?
- relapsing hepatitis
- cholestatic hepatitis
- fulminant hepatitis
The majority of patients have clinical resolution by _____, nearly all by _____
2 months
6 months
What is the treatment of an HAV infection?
- there are none!
- we do have prevention and prophylaxis available to us
- we give a booster to ensure that we have prolonged immunity to hep A
What is the dosing of a hep A vaccine?
- give an intramuscular infection with schedule of- 1 dose of HAV vaccine (primary immunization) with a booster dose 6-36 months later (timeframe is product dependent)
- recommended for individuals over 6 months old for those at risk of the infection
What are the AE of HAV?
- generally well tolerated
- if a reaction does happen it is usually mild and transient soreness or redness at the injection site
- less common: headache, irritability, malaise, fatigue, GI sx