Hepatitis is the inflammation of the liver caused by a virus or a toxin. There are many variants of this disease: 1) Hepatitis A is an acute but benign form of viral hepatitis caused by an RNA virus that does not persist in the blood serum and is usually transmitted by ingesting food or drink that is contaminated with fecal matter. 2) Hepatitis B is an acute (sometimes fatal) form of viral hepatitis caused by a DNA virus that tends to persist in the blood serum and is transmitted by sexual contact or by transfusion or by ingestion of contaminated blood or other bodily fluids. 3) Hepatitis C is a viral hepatitis clinically indistinguishable from hepatitis B but caused by a single-stranded RNA virus; usually transmitted by parenteral means viz. injection of an illicit drug or blood transfusion or exposure to blood or blood products. 4) Hepatitis D is only caused after the presence of Hepatitis B. There are many Hepatitis blood tests available in public hospitals, dispensaries and private diagnostic labs. These tests are based on immuno-screening i.e. by screening for presence of antibodies to viral antigens in blood samples. In this test, patient’s blood samples are taken from vein, collected into air tight vials and serology tests are performed to detect the presence of antibody for each of the hepatitis viruses. Nowadays, various home-based hepatitis testing kits are available in the market that are convenient to and provide a fairly accurate result. Most of these kits contain an antibody–antigen specific binding strip which uses a sandwich reaction to detect the presence of hepatitis specific antibodies in the blood.
DNA & Genetics
DNA & Paternity
