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[doubledgesword]

I remember having a series of vaccinations for Hepa B  during elementary days. After that my doctor told me to return in his clinic in 1996, or 5 years after for the Booster dose. But he left for the States already, and it's been 4 years now and I still did not get that booster. Are my earlier vaccinations worthless now?
     

[ChinitoDr]

used to be there are only 2 types of hepatitis that is A and B. right now you have C,D,E, and lately F. those with clinical significance however in our local set up are hepatitis A,B and C.

hepatitis A is spread by orofecal route so it can be present in water, food, utensils, secretions. so ingestion is the usal manner of transmission. it usually run a benign course of 2 to 6 weeks with symptoms like fever, jaundice, abdominal pain, dark colored urine and light colored stools.

hepatitis C is usually transmitted by blood transfusion. the actual incidence in the philippines is unknown and the symptoms can be like hepatitis A or no symptoms at all as in cases of carriers.

I will discuss more on hepatitis B because this is the actual case of your friend. firstly hepatitis B can be of different types the carrier state (the most common and usually discoverd incidentally by routine laboratoty screening), chronic active and the chronic persistent hepatitis. the carriers are usually assymptomatic while those with chronic hepatitis are in a way symptomatic. carriers usually runs a benign course while chronic hepatitis may lead to cirrhosis and/or liver cancer in the future. to know if someone with hepatitis is contagious, an additional test called hepatitis profile should be done. it will tell you how long its been going on, if your body already developed antibodies against it and if you are contagious.