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HEPATITIS E CONTROL MUST BEGIN WITH YOU
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The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) are calling for more individual responsibility in the fight against Hepatitis E
Hepatitis is a general term meaning inflammation of the liver. It is a disease that can be caused by a variety of different viruses such as hepatitis A, B, C, D and E.
How is HEV transmitted?
• Hepatitis E (HEV) is caused by infection with the hepatitis E virus, which is transmitted via the faecal-oral route. Hepatitis E is a waterborne disease that arises from consumption of water or food contaminated with feaces. It occurs where there are low standards of sanitation especially where faecal contamination of drinking water is common.
When is a HEV infection life-threatening?
In general, it is unusual for HEV to stay in blood for long and, therefore, chronic infection does not occur. Infections usually take a short time and hospitalization is generally not required unless the patient is pregnant. However, occasionally, hepatitis may occur suddenly and with great intensity or severity causing deaths ranging between 0.5% - 4.0% of infected persons. This is known as Fulminate hepatitis and it occurs more frequently in pregnancy and regularly causes death in 20% of pregnant women in late pregnancy (the 3rd trimester).
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How do I know I have it?
• It usually takes 3 to 8 weeks from exposure to infection for the symptoms of the disease to start showing, with an average of 40 days. It may not show among children yet infection there is frequent. But in adults, where infection is most common in the ages of 15-40, typical signs of hepatitis include jaundice (yellow discoloration of the skin and sclera of the eyes, dark urine and pale stools), loss of appetite, an enlarged, tender liver, abdominal pain and tenderness, nausea and vomiting, and fever. The disease may range in severity from mild to severe.
What do I do when I have such symptoms?
• Go to hospital for check up. Doctors will test your blood to detect elevated antibody levels of specific antibodies to hepatitis E in the body. There is another method to isolate the virus but, unfortunately, such tests are not widely available. Hepatitis E is a viral disease and, as such, has no treatment. Antibiotics are of no value. Prevention is therefore the most effective approach against the disease.
What do I do to protect myself and family?
• You should boil all drinking water and clean the water containers. Wash your hands, food handling containers and cleaning clothes with soap. Practice safe hygiene and always deposit your human waste in toilets. Avoid open defecation. The community should ensure high quality standards for public water supplies and proper disposal of sanitary waste. Travellers to highly infected areas should strictly observe the usual elementary food hygiene precautions. Avoid drinking unboiled or contaminated water, eating unwashed fruits, uncooked fish and vegetables. 
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