Hepatitis B virus (HBV) emerges as a prominent health problem in our country, Turkey, as it is in the rest of the world. There are regional differences in terms of incidence in Turkey, and it occurs with a frequency of 5-15%. People who have been exposed to HBV may have several types of clinical picture and disease. In the contagious type of jaundice called “acute hepatitis”, the infection creates a jaundice and flu-like picture as soon as it infects the body.
While 90% of those who have the disease recover in this way, the chronic disease stage begins in 10% of them. In the chronic disease stage, patients live for many years as a carrier and contagious because they cannot show sufficient immune resistance against HBV infection, and they carry some risks. If HBV infection stays like this for a long time, the risk of developing the most feared liver diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer increases considerably.
Therefore, it is necessary to know the transmission routes well in order to prevent HBV infection. Precautions can be taken for basic transmission routes such as unprotected and careless sexual intercourse, intravenous drug addiction, living or working in crowded places such as prison-hospital-school-barracks, receiving medical or dental treatments without appropriate sterilization measures, needle applications such as tattoo acupuncture.
Individuals with HBV infection in their family are also at risk for an unknown reason, and family members should definitely have HBV screening done. The most effective way of protection is HBV vaccination, and a significant decrease is expected in the frequency of HBV with the initiation of routine vaccination programs for more than 20 years in our country. HBV screening can be done easily in all hospitals and it can be understood whether vaccination is required.
In patients with chronic disease stage, ultrasound, blood tests and even liver biopsy may be required in order to understand the extent of the disease and to fully evaluate the liver disease. Biopsy is not recommended for every patient, usually once or twice a year, examinations evaluating disease activity are performed and a biopsy decision is made according to the results.
For this reason, it is important for patients with HBV to have their blood tests and ultrasound checks done at least once a year in the Gastroenterology department. In patients who are found to have liver damage at a certain level, treatment is given and all undesirable results of HBV can be prevented. For this reason, many undesirable bad results can be prevented with simple measures such as routine screening and controls.
