A note on Hepatitis
Camilla Cracchiolo
: Dear Ellen, Molly, and NO18GH
: I had always thought there were only two types of Hepatitis, ie: Serum
: Hepatitis, and Bacterial Hepatitis.
: Shows ya what I know ;-).
: But I read that a common one in the U.S.A. is Hepatitis B, or what I thought
: was Serum Hepatitis.
: Now about C, D, and E I'm not sure where they fall.
: And where is A? ( got me hangin' )
Medical professionals don't use the terms 'infectious hepatitis' or
'serum hepatitis' any more. Infectious hep used to mean hepatitis due to
infection with the hepatitis A virus: this one often comes from infected
seafood, is more easily transmitted and usually less serious. Serum
hepatitis is from Hepatitis B virus; is infectious in blood and
semen/vaginal secretions, but not usually saliva or other bodily
secretions (which hep A is infectious in). There is no form of bacterial
hepatitis. Hep C, D, E et al (I'm sure they'll find more) are all just
different viruses that cause hepatitis. There's also toxic hepatitis,
which results from exposure to chemicals the liver can't handle, the most
frequent one probably being alcohol. Also it happens in people who try to
kill themselves with tylenol. (Took care of a teenager once that tried
that. Just made her liver real sick and gave her a lot of abdominal pain. Dumb
kid.) There's also a rare form of autoimmune hepatitis (not lupus) where
the body attacks liver cells. The treatment is corticosteroids.
: Way back in the Sixties I came down with a little case of Hepatitis B from
: playing around with drugs (Herman! kick in the "wayback machine") I was a
: fool, to be sure, and shared a needle with an Acid buddy. I came down with
: Serum Hep.. and all my friends got the shots before they knew which type I
: had. At that time the only treatment was rest, I turned a pretty yellow and
: remained very weak for a month and a half, then I was fine. That scared me
: enough to stay away from needles for recreation, and I have survived the
: Sixties fairly well ( I used to do drugs in the sixties, now I don't care
: what the temperature is! <yuk yuk>).
: The Seventies brought me a case of Herpes, which with each onset, it became
: less and less severe, and finally dissapeared. Probably to lay dormant and
: mutate into the rouge CFS retro-virus that trigered my CFIDS (conjecture on
: my, and many others part), refer to article of Jan. 15, 1992, Vol. 116,
: Number 2, Annals of Internal Medicine, for the angle on Herpesvirus Type 6
: and Chronic Fatige. The article was sent to me by the CFIDS Association, you
: may have seen it too.
You probably meant the mutation statement as humor, but just to clarify:
a hepatitis or a herpes virus is not going to mutate into a retrovirus. The
jump in basic configuration is too great. Hepatitis and herpes are not
caused by a retrovirus: the only three known human retroviruses are HIV,
HTLV I and HTLV II (which cause leukemia and lymphoma, respectively.)
: So can a correlation be drawn, or a connection between the three be made?
: (CFIDS, HERPES, HEP..) I don't know. Also, between the three there was long
: periods of complete health, so it's hard to understand.
: Just a little history to add to the data-base. I hope it is of use.
I'm real interested in the hepatitis theory right now. One of my
brothers, (the one who doesn't have CFS) just found out he has some
strange kind of hepatitis and is going to have a liver biopsy to see what
the deal is. His liver function tests all look just like mine, but his
are higher (more dramatically abnormal). His hep A, B and C tests are
all negative.
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Camilla Cracchiolo, RN cam...@primenet.com
Shrine of the Cybernetic Madonna BBS 213-766-1356
"The Board that Hates Rush Limbaugh With A Passion"
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