Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B in Saudi Arabia

Hepatitis B in Saudi Arabia

Introduction

Hepatitis B is potentially fatal infection affecting the liver. Hepatitis B is reported to have caused thousands of deaths every year. Most of the deaths occurred in developing countries of Africa, Asia and South America (Di Bisceglie 2009 p. 56). This paper presents critical evaluation of the relevant epidemiology of hepatitis B virus in Saudi Arabia. The paper critically analyses the biological, social and environmental factors determining the rates of hepatitis B (HBV) in Saudi Arabia, discusses morbidity and mortality rates using appropriate tables and charts, examines the prevention and control measures used in Saudi Arabia, and the current legislation concerning hepatitis B in Saudi Arabia and the UK. Furthemore, the paper provides arguments for whether I think there should be any changes made to prevention and control measures. This essay is based on several parts including introduction, background, epidemiology and discussion.

Background of the study

Within 60-120 days of the HBV infection, the symptoms begin to appear. However, the symptoms appear only in 50% of infected adults, and for infants and children, the percentage of onset of symptoms are often less. Some people become very ill after contracting the virus. The incubation period of hepatitis B is an average of 90 days (range 40 to 180 days). Symptoms are nonspecific prodromal period and include loss of appetite, diarrhea, vomiting, and cold like symptoms such as headache, chills and fever. About 90% of adults recover fully from hepatitis B, although it comes after months. Acute fulminant hepatitis B occurs only in 0.5-1% of infected persons and usually ends in death (Al-Faleh FZ. 2003 p. 71). Carriers of hepatitis B virus is detected by the characteristic profile of serological markers.

Disease in carriers of hepatitis B virus develops in one of two ways. Most often, they develop a chronic persistent hepatitis is usually asymptomatic, and rarely accompanied by severe liver disease. Based on the foregoing, we conclude that the protection of human infection from hepatitis B is an effective means of resisting the threat of severe liver disease (Al Sarheed 2004 p. 6).

The prevalence of hepatitis B (HBV) virus infection gives a great deal of concern in Saudi Arabia. The infection is particularly high among the underprivileged because of the common use of injections? and their regions of origin where the virus is highly endemic. After a thorough research, I have found that many studies has been conducted by collecting samples from the male and female population in different provinces of Saudi Arabia (Hwang 2008 p. 56). The overall prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) has been found high; as per the recent results it is 16.7% and no significant difference was encountered between the rate in males and females (Nguyen 2004 p. 820). Different regions of Saudi Arabia showed a significantly variable prevalence of HBsAg. The eastern province had a prevalence of about 9% compared to the southwestern province where the prevalence was 25% in Jaizan (Sarheed, 2004, 1943-6). The antibodies anti-HBs and anti-HBc were encountered in 30-67% of the individuals ...