Definition
What is hepatitis?
In hepatitis the liver, the organ that filters the blood, processes drugs and alcohol and makes bile, becomes inflamed. The illness can be acute, lasting weeks, or chronic, lasting six months or more. Five unrelated viruses, named hepatitis A to E, are the best-known causes, but heavy drinking, some medicines and toxins, and autoimmune hepatitis, in which the immune system attacks liver cells, can also inflame the organ.
Hepatitis A and E pass mainly through food or water contaminated with feces and usually clear up on their own. Hepatitis B, C and D spread through blood, and B and D also through other body fluids, including from mother to baby at birth; these can last for decades, and D can only infect someone who already carries B. Many infected people feel well, while others have tiredness, nausea, dark urine and jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes. Years of chronic B or C infection can scar the liver into cirrhosis and lead to liver cancer.
Blood tests for liver enzymes and for viral antigens, antibodies or genetic material identify the type. Vaccines prevent hepatitis A and B, chronic B is kept in check with antiviral drugs, and most hepatitis C infections can now be cured with a short course of pills.
Word parts
Where does the word “hepatitis” come from?
- hepat-
- liverGreek hepar, hepatos
- -itis
- inflammationGreek -itis
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Terms that go with it
- LiverThe liver is the largest gland and internal organ, lying in the upper right abdomen, where it makes bile, processes nutrients and clears toxins.
- InflammationInflammation is the body's protective response to infection or injury, in which leaky, widened blood vessels bring immune cells and fluid to the site.
- JaundiceJaundice is yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes that occurs when the pigment bilirubin builds up in the blood.
- VirusA virus is a tiny infectious particle of DNA or RNA inside a protein coat that can multiply only by taking over the machinery of a living host cell.
- VaccineA vaccine is a preparation that trains the immune system to recognize a pathogen, so the body can fight it off quickly if it meets the real thing later.
- Antiviral drugAn antiviral drug is a medicine that treats or prevents a viral infection by blocking a step in the virus's life cycle inside the host's cells.
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