Hepatitis is one of the main infectious diseases widely spread in the world today, and it is a disease caused by hepatitis virus. At present, five kinds of hepatitis viruses have been found, namely hepatitis A virus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis D virus and hepatitis E virus (also known as δ-virus). Among them, δ-virus is related to hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C and D viruses are also called non-A non-B viruses. Infectious diseases caused by these viruses are called hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis D and hepatitis E respectively. Among them, hepatitis B is the most common and the most harmful. Hepatitis B virus carriers will gradually turn into chronic hepatitis, which may eventually lead to liver cancer. The incidence of liver cancer in patients infected with hepatitis B virus is more than 50 times higher than that in those without hepatitis B virus.
At present, the number of hepatitis patients is amazing. The number of people infected with hepatitis B in the United States is about 1 10,000, with 300,000 new patients every year. There are about 2 million hepatitis B patients in Japan. China is a high incidence area of viral hepatitis, with five types of hepatitis: A, B, C, D and E. According to experts' estimation, there are 600 million people infected with hepatitis in China, accounting for about half of the total population, and about 65.438+0.2 billion people carry hepatitis virus, of which 65.438+0.4 will eventually lead to cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. There are about120 thousand chronic hepatitis patients in China, and about 300 thousand people die of liver disease every year, half of which are primary liver cancer.
How is hepatitis B spread? It is found that there are many ways of transmission of hepatitis B infection: blood transfusion infection, or poor disinfection of medical devices, vertical infection between parents and children, and parallel infection between husband and wife. In particular, it is worth pointing out that many hepatitis patients in China are spread through food, so it is necessary to pay attention to food hygiene and scientific eating habits.
In order to fight against the rampant hepatitis B, the prevention of hepatitis B is regarded as one of the focuses of medical research all over the world, and hepatitis B vaccine has formed a rapidly developing market. Since the development and marketing of 1982, due to the limitation of technology and raw materials, hepatitis B vaccine has been produced in small batches, which is very expensive and has no safety guarantee, so it has not been widely used. Now this situation has improved. 1989, the United States developed a new type of hepatitis B vaccine with modern biotechnology for the first time, and soon many companies in Japan, Britain and Israel also put into production of hepatitis B vaccine. At present, many scientists are studying how to produce various vaccines to prevent hepatitis B and other infectious diseases by synthetic peptides, and hepatitis B is expected to be prevented and treated in the next century.
In order to prevent other types of hepatitis, there have been many new developments in the research and development of diagnostic reagents and preventive vaccines for other types of hepatitis in recent years. The United States has established a company to develop hepatitis C vaccine, and Japan has also made great progress. In the past, the development of hepatitis A vaccine and hepatitis A therapeutic agent was slow. Now, scientists from West Point Military Academy in Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins have jointly developed a new type of hepatitis A vaccine, and the experimental results are excellent. This vaccine can stimulate the body to produce protective antibodies to kill hepatitis A virus with only one injection, and the curative effect is almost as high as 100%, and it can continue to play its role within 7 years. Therefore, we should be full of confidence in preventing and eradicating all kinds of hepatitis in the next century. Emancipate the "flu"
Every year in late winter and early spring, hospitals are always overcrowded, and 78% of these patients are flu patients. What's the difference between the flu and the common cold we often say?