Viral Hepatitis (cont.)
Who is at risk for viral hepatitis?
People who are most at risk for developing viral
hepatitis are workers in the health care professions, people with multiple
sexual partners, intravenous drug users, and hemophiliacs who receive blood
clotting factors. Blood transfusion,
once a common means of spreading viral hepatitis, now is a rare cause of
hepatitis. Viral hepatitis is generally thought to be as much as ten times more
common among lower socioeconomic and poorly educated individuals. About one
third of all cases of hepatitis come from an unknown or unidentifiable source.
This means that you don't have to be in a high risk group in order to be
infected with a hepatitis virus.
What are the symptoms and signs of viral hepatitis?
The period of time between exposure to hepatitis and the
onset of the illness is
called the incubation period. The incubation period varies depending on the
specific hepatitis virus. Hepatitis A has an incubation period of about 15-45 days;
hepatitis B
from 45-160 days, and hepatitis C from 2 weeks to 6 months.
Many patients infected with hepatitis A, B, and C have few or no symptoms of
illness. For those who do develop symptoms of viral hepatitis, the most common
are flu- like symptoms including:
Less common symptoms include:
- dark urine
- light-colored stools
- fever
- jaundice (a yellow appearance to the skin and white portion of the eyes)
Next: What is the prognosis of viral hepatitis? »
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