What Do You Need to Know About Hepatitis in Kids?
A 28-year-old woman, new to the community, presents to the pediatric clinic of a rural community health center with her almost 1-week-old infant. She reports that she has "chronic" hepatitis C but denies taking any current medications. She is uncertain if the obstetric provider who she saw several months ago performed any testing, but she is certain she was not tested at the hospital where she delivered.
What will you do?
Why are the hepatitis viruses considered together? They have little in common from a virology standpoint other than that they infect the same organ. In general, the symptoms result from the body's immune response, not infection itself. The key differences are:
Transmission route;
Incubation period;
Clinical manifestations; and
Availability of a vaccine.
This activity is a continuation of Part 1 which discussed hepatitis A and B.
Medscape Infectious Diseases © 2011
WebMD, LLC
Cite this: Ravi Jhaveri. What's New -- Part 2: Viral Hepatitis in Children - Medscape - Jul 06, 2011.
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