HEPATITIS B TRUST
HELPLINE 07958 558510
Managing Hepatitis B
Managing Hepatitis B
Managing Hepatitis B is very much up to us, doctors usually give no medicine but just advice, this is mainly about what harms us eg Alcohol, long term painkillers, fried foods and getting obese and what helps us exercise, green foods and a positive mental attitude of mind. Here we try to help with
It is best to understand the more we know about this virus the quicker we can turn our infection into an easily managed one and create a simple life plan to live long normal healthy lives not dominated by our diagnosis of Hepatitis B. Each patient needs to quickly understand
What do our Hepatitis B Results mean? 70% of patients have an inactive infection which in the UK means they will not progress to illness, as our new anti viral medicines can remove HBV from the blood stream the moment it increases in numbers in the blood or DNA or affects the liver with high readings. Such patients are put on yearly or six monthly monitoring and need to rest assured they will be fine.
If the Hepatitis B is active or inactive? Active Hepatitis B is when the e antigen is present creating a high load or if our liver function tests indicate our liver is under stress. Many patients live in terror of serious illness when their liver team are seeing a HBV infection level that is doing nothing and easy to manage.
Due to our Lack of Work, Border and Migrant HBV testing sadly far too many patients are diagnosed only due to liver damage symptoms emerging later in life at 40 years old and older. For this group anti viral medication is usually fast tracked and then we have to deal with actual illness and sometimes other related forms of care. These are best studied under our
Most of all over some 10,000 patient and carer contacts that we have had over the years we find 80% of patients find their Hepatitis b more of an emotional and social problem than an actual liver problem. Fears of stigma, of illness or just plain fears from isolation and not accessing information and facts we can trust have been the hardest part of it all. For all these reasons feel free to get on the freephone confidential helpline and talk and learn, this virus is the one where very often the knowledge is the medicine and our consciousness is our healthcare.
