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Strange hepatitis

  • Thread starter Thread starter WithoutSugar
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WithoutSugar

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hello!

I got terrified today when my landlady told me she had acute liver disease and went to hospital and they couldn't help her as antibiotics didn't work, and eventually the 14th antibiotic worked and saved her life.

I asked her what was the official diagnosis and she told me that the doctors couldn't tell! They don't know what caused this and there are other people with liver problems like that and that they just try several antibiotics until they find something that works.

She says it should be some kind of hepatitis that she caught even though she was vaccinated for A and B due to her job in healthcare.

I am now afraid that as I live with her, I may caught it up. What hepatitis could that be and what is the risk of contracting it?

thanks!
 
I thought hepatitis is caused by one of several viruses?

If that is the case, no antibiotic on Earth will have any effect. If an antibiotic did work, then she had a bacterial infection, not a viral one.

Hepatitis is transmitted through food and drink (Hep. A) or exposure to body fluids (Hep. B & C). Hep A is the least dangerous and usually clears up quickly, whilst B & C can have long term effects on your health, particularly if they go untreated.

Just living with someone won't give you any variety of Hepatitis - you would need to have been exposed to their body fluids (for example, by having penetrative sex, or sharing needles with them) in the case of B & C, or to have eaten food prepared by them under unhygienic conditions in the case of A. I am guessing that these scenarios are, by and large, unlikely. Living in the same house as her will not result in you contracting the illness, any more than living in a house with someone who is HIV positive (as I did, for a couple of years when I was younger) will result in you developing AIDS.

If it was a bacterial infection, then she has probably recovered from it, and is no longer infectious, in which case there's nothing to worry about. If it was hepatitis, then the exercise of normal hygiene precautions should prevent transmission of the virus to you. Does she prepare your food? That's the only scenario that I could possibly think might result in transmission of the Hepatitis virus to you, and it would be the least dangerous strain.

I am not an expert: if you're in the slightest bit worried about things, you should go and talk to your GP and s/he will pass you on to an expert if s/he thinks that there is any risk you might have contracted the virus, or need further counselling.
 
Yeah, maybe she confused antibiotics with antivirals, I don't count much on what she says.

But I think hepatitis contracts with saliva etc.
 
WithoutSugar said:
Yeah, maybe she confused antibiotics with antivirals, I don't count much on what she says.

But I think hepatitis contracts with saliva etc.
Click to expand...
Could be - I'm not an expert; but I still think you'd have had to come into pretty intimate contact with her to get Hepatitis. Sharing crockery, cutlery and such like is not going to do it unless - just possibly, I suppose - it never gets washed. But I'm guessing that's not likely :)
 
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