An Insight into Human Papillomavirus Infection

What is human papillomavirus infection?

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a viral infection that’s transmitted from one person to another through close contact. More than 100 varieties of HPV exist at the moment, and 40% of them are transmitted through sexual exchange and can impact your genitals, mouth, or throat. Experts suggest that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease. The prevalence of the disease can be gauged from the fact that a majority of sexually active people contract some form of the infection at some point, despite having few sexual partners.

Although some cases of genital infection may not lead to any health issues, some types of HPV can trigger the development of genital lumps and even cancers of the cervix, anus, and throat.

Causes

The virus that leads to HPV infection is communicated through skin-to-skin contact. Most people get a genital infection through direct sexual contact, but since HPV is a skin-to-skin infection, copulation isn’t mandatory for spread to occur. Although many people have the infection, they are not aware of it, which means you can still get it even if your companion doesn’t have any symptoms. It’s also possible to have several types of HPV.

Rarely, a mother who has HPV can communicate the virus to her baby during delivery. When this occurs, the child may develop a condition in which they develop warts inside their throat or airways.

HPV symptoms

Often, HPV infection doesn’t cause any prominent symptoms or health glitches. In fact, 90% of the infections disappear on their own within two years, but, since the virus is still in an individual’s body during this time, that individual may unwittingly transmit the virus. When the virus doesn’t go away itself, it can lead to grave health issues, including genital lumps and warts in the throat. The infection can also lead to cervical cancer and other cancers of the genitals, head, neck, and throat.

Because the types of HPV that lead to lumps are different from the types that cause cancer, having genital lumps caused by the infection doesn’t mean that you’ll develop cancer.

Cancers caused by the papillomavirus infection has no symptoms until the cancer reaches the final stages of growth. Regular screenings can help detect virus-related health glitches earlier, which can help improve outlook and raise chances of survival.

Women

Guidelines from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) indorse that women have their first HPV test, or Pap smear, at age 21, irrespective of start of sexual activity. Regular HPV tests help to detect irregular cells in women, which can indicate cervical cancer or other HPV-related issues. Women ages 21 to 29 should have just an HPV test every three years, while from ages 30 to 65, women should do one of the following:

obtain an HPV test every 3 years

have an HPV test every 5 years; it will screen for high-risk types of the infection

take both tests together every 5 years; this is known as co-testing

Separate tests are favored over co-testing, as per the USPSTF.

If you’re younger than age 30, your physician may also request a human papillomavirus infection test if your test results are anomalous. There a minimum of 14 strains of HPV that can cause cancer. If you have one of these strains, your clinician may want to screen you for cervical changes.

It’s important for you to get an HPV test more regularly. Your clinician may also request a follow-up process, such as a colposcopy. Cervical changes that cause cancer often take many years to grow, and HPV infections often disappear themselves without causing cancer. You may want to follow a course of vigilant waiting rather than undergo treatment for irregular or precancerous cells.

Men

It’s important to keep in mind that the Human Papillomavirus Infection test is only available for detecting the infection in women. There’s presently no FDA-approved test available for spotting HPV in men. According to a reliable source, regular screening for anal, throat, or penile cancer in men is not recommended at the moment.

Some physicians may carry out an anal HPV test for men that have a bigger risk for developing anal cancer. This includes men who are involved in anal sex and men with Human Papillomavirus Infection.

Hepatitis: Symptoms & Treatment

Hepatitis is a group of distinct diseases that directly affect the liver. It can be determined by three different types through laboratory tests including hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Each type is different with respect to its symptoms and treatment. Sometimes even the recreational drugs and prescription medications themselves becomes the reason for this viral disease.

Types of Hepatitis:

Hepatitis-A-medonline

Hepatitis A

The first type of Hepatitis A is a contagious liver infection caused by a virus called hepatitis A. In some cases, it just has a mild illness that lasts a few weeks but in other cases, it becomes severe and takes months to cure. This virus can be cure however you have to be careful while the treatment is going on.

Symptoms

Hepatitis A can cause inflammation in your liver. Sometimes you do not get any symptoms but some of the symptoms you can get are:

  • Jaundice
  • Upset stomach
  • Loss of appetite
  • Fatigue
  • Joint pain
  • Fever
  • Diarrhea
  • Pale-color poop
  • Dark urine
  • Vomiting
  • Itching

The above symptoms can go away in some days, weeks, or months depending on the intensity of the virus and how you are treating this disease.

Treatment

Hepatitis A is not cured by any medication but the symptoms of hepatitis can be cured by supportive care which includes treatment of other diseases that cause hepatitis and also the tests that are needed for diagnosis and recovery to check if your body is healing properly.

Some steps you should take to feel comfortable during this time:

  • Take rest. It is needed as you feel tired and weak than usual.
  • Try to eat lighter food but full of nutrients to get the maximum energy and easy in eating as hepatitis A can usually bring nausea that makes difficulty in eating. You must drink fruit juice or milk and high-calorie foods for the needed energy.
  • Do not take alcohol as balancing both the medication and the alcohol by your body specially your liver is dangerous leading the liver damage. Consult your doctor if you are taking any other drugs to control any uninvited damage.

Hepatitis-B-Medonline

Hepatitis B

The infection in your liver can cause by the virus of hepatitis B. It is mild in some people and lasts a very short period but in severe cases, it leaves the scars on the organ, cancer, liver failure, or it can even take a life. Hepatitis B can be spread by the contact of blood or by the body fluids of someone containing this virus.

Symptoms

The short-term infection of hepatitis B does not bring any symptoms most of the time. In other cases, the symptoms are:

  • Jaundice
  • Fever
  • Upset stomach and aches because of nausea, loss of appetite, and vomiting
  • Fatigue (for weeks or months)
  • Joint & Belly pain
  • Light-colored poop

These symptoms can come after 1 to 6 months after getting the virus that makes it dangerous as the spread can increase the chances of loss of lives. Every third person with this virus got to know that he got the virus only by a blood test.

Treatment

Hepatitis B can be treated by the vaccine and a shot of hepatitis B immune globulin. A protein that helps in fighting the infection and boosting your immune system.

If your infections take longer time to cure, that means you have chronic active hepatitis B and that needs the following treatment:

  • Your doctor will prescribe the drug called Entecavir (Baraclude) that you need to take in either a liquid form or as a tablet.
  • The second drug is Tenofovir (Viread). This is available in a powder or tablet form. It can hurt your kidneys that will be checked by your doctor after every while.
  • Lamivudine (3tc, Epivir A/F, EpivirHBV, Heptovir), a liquid or a tablet that might stop responding if you take it for a long time.
  • Adefovirdipivoxil (Hepsera), a tablet for the people who do not respond to lamivudine.
  • Interferon alfa (IntronA, Roferon A, Sylatron) boosts your immune system and treats the liver inflammation.

Hepatitis-C-Medonline.pk

Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is the stage of the virus that comes with the severity of liver damage. As this virus causes few symptoms, most people do not know that they have this virus. It spreads by the blood or body fluids of the infected person.

Hepatitis C is having different stages that need different treatments.

Symptoms

Hepatitis C, in most cases, have no symptoms but after 2 weeks or 6 months after getting the virus the following symptoms can appear that last for 2 to 12 weeks:

  • Jaundice
  • Stomach pain
  • Nausea
  • Clay-colored poop
  • Dark urine
  • Fever
  • Fatigue
  • Joint pain
  • Vomiting

Treatment

In acute hepatitis C, there is no treatment, you just need to treat the symptoms if you get any. But if you get chronic hepatitis C, there is a list of medications available. Some of them are:

  • Daclatasvir (Daklinza), take once a day with sofosbuvir for 12 weeks.
  • Sofosbuvir-velpatasvir (Epclusa), this medicine cures the disease and needs to be taken for 12 weeks.
  • Ledipasvir-sofosbuvir (Harvoni), another cure of the disease that should be taken for 8 – to 12 weeks.
  • Ribavirin (Copegus, Moderiba, Rebetol,Ribasphere, Virazole), available in a tablet, capsule, or in liquid form and should be taken for 24 – 48 weeks or longer.
  • Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) with interferon and ribavirin, take this tablet with ribavirin and/or interferon for 12 – 24 weeks.

There are a lot of other medicines you should take by consulting your doctor to treat these viruses the right way.

A Quick Overview of Hemophilia

Hemophilia is a rare ailment in which blood doesn’t clot normally due to insufficient blood-clotting proteins. People having hemophilia are likely to bleed longer following an injury than they would if their blood coagulated normally. Small cuts typically aren’t quite hazardous, though. A serious dearth of the clotting factor protein leads to the bigger health problems such as deep bleeding inside your body, particularly in your knees, ankles and elbows. Your organs and tissues can be affected by internal bleeding, and may also be life-threatening. There are various signs and symptoms of hemophilia, including many large or deep cuts; unusual bleeding following vaccinations; blood in your urine or stool, among others.

If your clotting-factor level is slightly down, you may bleed only after surgery or injury, and you may experience spontaneous bleeding if you have serious deficiency. There are numerous types of hemophilia, and most forms are hereditary. Nevertheless, approximately 30% of patients have no family history of the ailment. In these people, an unpredicted change happens in one of the genes related to hemophilia.