Almost every 12th person in the world seems to be infected with either Hepatitis B or C virus infection. In PGI itself, almost 80-100 new patients of HBV or HCV are seen per month in the liver clinic run twice a week by the Department of Hepatology of the Institute.
The liver clinic in PGI runs twice a week by the department of hepatology of the institute. Hepatitis literally means inflammation (‘Sojus’ in Hindi) in the liver and commonly occurs due to different viruses, alcohol, drugs, fat and auto-immunity (attack against self by body immune system). Viral hepatitis can be either acute which is usually a self limiting disease remaining for few weeks or chronic lasting for months to years. The different viruses which cause viral hepatitis, hepatitis A virus and hepatitis E virus (HAV, HEV) cause acute self-limiting disease whereas hepatitis B andC (HBV, HCV) are notorious in causing chronic hepatitis in 5-7 percent of patients with acute infection.
Dr RK Dhiman of PGI said, “HAV and HEV which cause AVH usually spread thorugh the consumption of contaminated food and water. Patients with acute hepatitis either come sporadically or in the form of epidemics when a large population is affected usually by a common contaminated source. HAV occurs more commonly in children and young adults whereas HEV infects adults more commonly than children.” World over there are around 50 crore individuals infected together with hepatitis B and Hepatitis C virus infection. Of these around 5-6 crores are present in India. “Both HBV and HCV which can cause chronic viral hepatitis (CVH) spread by the parental routes like blood transfusion, contaminated needles and instruments, razors and uncommonly by sexual route.”