Hepatitis B & C Case Study

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Name: Tanzania Bowens Causative Agents: Hepatitis B and C Disease Jaundice and Hepatic Cancer Classification of the causative agent: Hepatitis C (HCV) is an enveloped single stranded RNA virus. Hepatitis B (HBV) is an enveloped double stranded DNA virus History: Medical anthropologist Dr. Baurch Blumberg discovered Hepatitis B while trying to understand how genetics affected disease susceptibility. Due to the lack of technology he turned to a different health issue which was hemophiliac patients who received blood transfusion, during the study he found the recipient of the blood transfusions were exposed to antigens from donors that the recipient’s body did not recognize. While using this new found knowledge he found the “ Australia Antigen” which …show more content…
Two years later he invented a HBV vaccine and the blood test to identify the virus. HCV was recognized in patients that tested negative for HAV and HBV which was then called the non-A and non-B Hepatitis that we now call Hepatitis C. Virulence factors of the causative agent: HBV can hide its surface antigen from the host’s immune system to maintain a chronic infection . HCV constantly mutates its envelope protein which gives it an antigenic variation while eliminating the host’s innate immunity. Mode of transmission: HBV can survive outside of the host for seven days, if entry is permitted it can infect another host while outside the original host’s body. This virus can spread from mother to child at birth. It is also can be sexually transmitted. HCV is transmitted by unsafe injection practices, such as using a needle that has been contaminated by the virus. Unscreened blood transfusion is also a mode of transmission for HCV. Incubation Period of the Disease: HBV’s incubation period can vary from 30 - 180 days, and can only be detected after 30 days of the infection. HCV’s incubation period is 2 weeks to 6 months