Roger-Luc Chayer
We all know hepatitis A, B and C, which cause more or less serious lesions to the liver and who can be vaccinated or treated with drugs, but who knows the other forms of hepatitis just as serious as the D , E, F, G and H?
According to the World Health Organization, hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. This disease may progress spontaneously to healing or progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer. Hepatitis viruses are the most common cause worldwide, but other infections, toxic substances (such as alcohol or certain drugs) and autoimmune diseases can also be the cause of ‘hepatitis.
There are five types of hepatitis viruses (designated by the letters A, B, C, D and E) that are of particular concern because of the morbidity and mortality they cause and the outbreaks they may cause. Type B and C viruses, in particular, cause chronic hepatitis in hundreds of millions of people and are the most common cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Hepatitis A and E are usually caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water. Hepatitis B, C and D usually occur as a result of parenteral contact with infected body fluids: transfusion of contaminated blood or blood products, invasive medical procedures with contaminated equipment and, for hepatitis B, transmission of mother to child at birth or a family member to a child, and also sexual contact. Sometimes the acute infection causes only limited symptoms or goes unnoticed and other times, it is manifested by jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), dark urine, asthenia, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
The Hepatitis F virus is a hypothetically hypothesized virus that is thought to be responsible for some form of viral hepatitis. Several candidate viruses for hepatitis F emerged in the 1990s, but none of the reported cases were sufficiently substantiated.
Hepatitis G virus and GB-C virus (GBV-C) are RNA viruses that were identified separately in 1995. Although it was first thought that GBV-C virus was associated with chronic hepatitis, further research has failed to identify any association between this virus and clinical disease. This form of virus seems harmless.