Hepatitis Vaccine

Hepatitis is a self limiting disease of the liver usually due to some form of infection, unhealthy dietary and living habits or hereditary factors. Hepatitis infections can be of various types namely, hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. Hepatitis infection shows up visibly in most of the cases but can also remain hidden for a long period of time in some cases. This is a major cause of worry for the medical community as detection and treatment of the hidden types of hepatitis is very tough and this could lead to the patient being affected by liver cirrhosis, which could even prove fatal to the infected patient.  This factor alone stresses the importance of a hepatitis vaccine. Although the liver is one organ that can repair itself to a certain extent, getting the liver back to its normal functions post cirrhosis is often tough and time consuming. Prevention rather than cure is the solution and this is precisely why the medical community and world health organizations have been promoting the usage of hepatitis vaccines.

Hepatitis vaccine is promoted very religiously in developing and under developed economies as various social and economic factors plays an important role in the spread of hepatitis. This is not to say the modern developed world does not have any use for a hepatitis vaccine program, as many types of hepatitis infections are also related to unhealthy eating habits like over indulgence and substance abuse like alcohol and drug abuse, two maladies of the developed world. Hepatitis vaccine can be administered even to babies, in some cases it is recommended to wait at least till the baby crosses one year in age before vaccinating it against hepatitis. A hepatitis vaccine is thus the best possible safeguard against any hepatitis infection.