Viral Hepatitis

Essay by feelinggood2007University, Bachelor'sA, April 2007

download word file, 7 pages 5.0

Mr. Dull is 40 years old, father of two children and husband of one wife, Kerry. He is a chef and worked at an upscale restaurant in New York was infected with the Hepatitis B virus. While helping an injured co-worker from bleeding Evens was cut on some broken glass himself. Seven months later he went for his physical and explained to his doctor about the incident, to be on the safe side the doctor ran a few more tests including a Hepatitis B antigen and later diagnosed Mr. Dull with Hepatitis B.

Dull, being a friend of mine and knowing I'm a nursing student, called to ask me a few questions. He is scared he's going to die. He has not told his wife what happened he is loosing weight, he's not sleeping well. I gathered all the information I thought would be helpful for Evens and presented to him.

WHAT IS HEPATITIS B?There exist a variety of viral Hepatitis known. We will consider one type of Hepatitis, Hepatitis B.

As we already discussed Hepatitis B is a member of the hepatitis viruses' family. It is a highly transmissible disease, it is said to be one hundred times more contagious than the aids virus. It can live on a dry surface on the outside of the body for at least seven days. (Yancie, 2002) In the late 1990s it was reported that about 200,000 Americans were infected each year, and about 5,000 Americans died each year of complications from Hepatitis B. Also during those years about 70 percent of new cases of Hepatitis B occurred among people age fifteen to thirty-nine. From that total 75 percent were teenagers. (Yancie, 2002)The Hepatitis B virus can cause a serious disease called Chronic Hepatitis B and that disease attacks the liver. It...