Hepatitis B is another disease that is highly prevalent in Thailand. The number of patients is calculated as around 6 – 10 percentage of the total population. 90 percent of the first infected person is affected by what is called an “acute infection”. Most people with acute hepatitis is usually able to resolve the symptoms with no problem. However, 10 percent of the infected person will become a carrier or diagnosed as having a chronic infection.
When following up with this group of patients, the result shows that:
- 5 – 10 percent will have liver cancer; and
- 30 percent will have cirrhosis and enter the liver failure stage in a period of about 5 years.
Although, chronic hepatitis receives many attentions in term of discovering treatment; however, there is still no measure or medicine that could cure hepatitis b for 100 percent. But if we are infected with hepatitis b, what can we do to take care of ourselves?
Treatment of patients with acute hepatitis B virus
At present, the patient with acute hepatitis b does not have to take medicine. For an infected person that is healthy, their body will be able to build immunity to the infection and can recover by themselves. Therefore, our main advice would be to take good care of yourself. Get enough rest. Eat nutritious food. Avoid alcohol drink, medicine, and other supplements that may have side effect as destruction of liver cells.
But…
For some patients that have the symptoms of nauseous and vomiting, they would have to avoid oily food and fried food. This is because their body cannot make enough bile to break down fats for digestion, causing such symptoms and have a poor appetite. This causes would make the patient lose their weight, thinning, and weakening because they did not receive enough nutrition. This makes their body unable to create any immunity to the infection, causing this group of patients to have chronic hepatitis b afterward.
We will continue in our next article on how to take care of yourself and the treatment for patients with hepatitis b virus.
