Thursday, October 13, 2016

Hepatitis A virus can cause fatal liver injury

It is an immediate, intrinsic response of the hepatitis A virus (HAV) infected cell that results in liver inflammation, a new study suggests.

Hepatitis researchers have long thought that immune cells sent by the body to attack virus-infected cells in the liver cause the acute liver injury associated with HAV and other hepatitis viruses.

The virus evokes a response in the infected cell that activates a pre-programmed cell death pathway.

In effect, the cell commits suicide, sacrificing itself along with the virus in an effort to save the host. This results in inflammation within the liver that we recognise as hepatitis.

Hepatitis A virus is a vaccine preventable form of infectious hepatitis. HAV is found worldwide and is transmitted through ingestion of food and water that is contaminated with the feces of an infected person.

Symptoms of hepatitis A include nausea, stomach pain, fever, sore throat, headache and diarrhea. People infected with HAV may not experience any symptoms, but shed the virus for two to four weeks.

During this period, an infected person can pass the virus to others. HAV does not cause chronic liver disease like hepatitis B and C viruses. But in rare cases, it can cause acute liver failure, which is often fatal.

For decades, researchers believed only primates - humans, chimpanzees and a few species of monkeys could be infected by HAV. However, researchers recently discovered the virus could jump species.

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