How is Hepatitis B Transferring?

  Written by: Abdul Mutalib Jawad

Hepatitis B is a viral and infectious disease that affects the human liver. This disease has a relatively long treatment period, so it can cause many health and financial problems for patients.

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some hepatitis B patients and a physician about this disease.

Ms. Nahid, a resident of Kapisa province says, “I have hepatitis B. I am very weak and suffer from nausea, dizziness, and chest pain. I borrowed about 10,000 afghanis and now I am being treated in the hospital.”

Ms. Sediqa says, “I was in Takhar province that I felt weakness. The doctor diagnosed my disease with hepatitis B. they hospitalized me for a month but my health condition did not change so I weaned my four-month-old baby and came to Kabul for treatment.”

Doctor Faridullah Omari, a specialist of infection diseases at Infection Diseases Hospital, Kabul city says,  “Symptoms of hepatitis B include lethargy, fatigue, nausea, upper right pain, vomiting, itchy skin, joint pain, and in advanced cases yellowing of the skin and eyes, which in the first stage can damage the patient's liver and in some cases causes death.”

What do some patients think about the causes of hepatitis B?

A woman from Charikar city, Parwan province says, “I delivered a baby about 10 months back and I lost more blood and then I transfused blood that caused me hepatitis B.”

Aqa Murad, a resident of Qarabagh district, Kabul province says, “Hepatitis B is a communicable disease transmitted from an infected person to the healthy one through shared dishes.”

Doctor Omari says, “Shared use of contaminated syringes, cosmetics and equipment of dentists and surgeons, nail clippers, toothbrushes, from infected mother to her child, and transfusion of infected blood to healthy person are the causes of hepatitis B.”

How do some patients treat hepatitis B?

Nahid says, “I regularly apply childhood vaccines to all my children. When I found out that hepatitis B is a fatal disease, I and my husband got hepatitis B vaccine too.”

Aqa Murad says, “A patient infected with hepatitis should not share utensils, stay away from healthy people, and a healthy person should also avoid such patients.”

Doctor Omari says, “People should never use drugs or if they are addicted, they should not use shared syringes. People should dress their hair in hairdresser shops wash their hands, and change their razors; when going to the dentist or surgeon, the customers should want to use sterilized equipment.

The mother with hepatitis B should give birth to her baby in a place where they take well care of the patient and her baby should be vaccinated and people with hepatitis B should not donate blood.”