The Hepatitis Killer Disease; What I Saw, What I Heard, What I Read -By Ogungbile Emmanuel Oludotun

Before the aurora of 17th June, 2017, our nuclear family had just celebrated some croons of hope, positive avidness and strength refreshments, as my indisposed mother showed glimpses of resuscitation from her senescence sickness. We were all glad at her sanguine responses, so much that she cooked some banters to our ears, which made us all giggle throughout the night. But however as the light of the morning came alive in the unusual semi darkness, situations of things went haywire as mother’s eye stuck startled, her pulse looked surceased, and body extremely rinsed in coldness. Then I knew mother couldn’t live or fight anymore, she had choosen to give up the ghost so swift at the middle age of her life.
Certainly, many of you might wonder why we celebrated happiness the previous night, then boom in the morning, it’s all sadness as in the harbinger of the opposite. It’s such depressing to tell you that mother had spent the last six months of her years in the excruciating hands of this reticent serial killing disease, hepatitis B. She had suffered in its fierceful stings which went in different stages till she was compressed and condensed in the place she can never look back. Hence today, from the obscured place of my heart I’m challenged to draw up, and brisk us about this silent parlous infection; what I saw, what I heard, and what I read about hepatitis B.

True, as my fervency about this killer infection couldn’t bear to wait, then I oversighted some outright studies about this infection, running and humming through the established records of the (WHO)World Health Organization. It was then I tumbled to fact that the hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and propels both the acute and chronic disease. Withal, I also realized that It’s a potentially life-threatening liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which is a major global health problem, and thus finds its roots in any accustomed places, most especially in languid and nescience homes in Africa. It is believed that this hard-nosed virus had catalyzed chronic infection and sinked people at high risk of death from cirrhosis to liver cancer or liver failure in the past, and the rate of it’s damage is also possible in the inconstant future. Research also unveiled that the chronic hepatitis B had increased the risk of developing liver failure, liver cancer or cirrhosis; a condition that permanently damages the liver. So consequently, If I’ve not then misconstrued information from my personal findings, I rummaged that some adults with hepatitis B might recover fully, even if their signs and symptoms are detected earlier, and the infants and teenagers could also be saved from the infection before it goes entrenched.

Moreover, as I wouldn’t nose out or understand how or where my mother got infected with this infection, thus I inquired from some medical personnel who reeled off to me some supposed impetus of hepatitis B infection. One of the most prevalent means of transmission which they told me was the transfer from mother to child at birth, which they referred to as perinatal transmission, or through horizontal transmission i.e exposure to infected blood, especially from an infected child to an uninfected child during the first 5 years of existence. We should note however that this infection are passed from person to person through blood, semen or other body fluids. Again, I also construed from this disquisition that one could be infected through the transfer by needlestick injuries which could come from injection needles, tattoo needles and other likeable needles can surge and prompt the transfer of this delicate infection. It also affirmed that exposure to infected blood and body fluids, such as saliva, menstrual, vaginal, and seminal fluids might ignite the light of hepatitis B. Furthermore, I acted twitched when I heard that this same hepatitis B might also occur through sexual transmissions, specifically amidst men or women who have sex with multiple partners. Hepatitis B tends to spread wider with the numbers of space and rooms given to manifest or manifold in its abundant exploits.

Seemingly as I wondered, I asked myself that if only God or kismet could have known how, when, where or who got my mother contaminated with the infection? If Only God or kismet could have known when or how the infection metamorphosed into the chronic stage? Maybe all I could do now is to rant in pain about how the sickness might had taken her away from us or ‘philippiced’ about how our family was first ignorant of the disease. Only if we had known, maybe hepatitis B might have never come her way. Today, hepatitis B killer disease spread fast in the speed of light, as World Health Organization recorded that in 2015, 257 million people lived with chronic hepatitis B infection, and that in that same year 2015, hepatitis B resulted in an estimated 887 000 deaths, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (i.e. primary liver cancer). Hence, dear conscious and unconscious readers, the infection hepatitis B can grow in its wing to the chronic convolution stage as I’ve witnessed that from my mother’s experience. Complications such as cirrhosis which is the scarring of the liver, liver cancer itself, liver failure and other deplorable conditions that might want to accompany the intricacies.

Now, it’s the responsibility and the answerability of you all to watch out for the pugs and treads of hepatitis B before it silently wipes everyone out. My Dad and I were the secondary sufferers of the infection, we were the ones who meandered and rambled to buy drugs, feed her with drugs and food as she had lost her stimulus, her mental stability and sense of discernment. We’re constricted to do everything for her, most especially the things she could do formerly for herself when she was healthy. You might want to check out for symptoms such as the abdominal pain, dark urine, joint pain, loss of appetite, yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes, and other likeable indications. We should try to prevent its cause, and if we have been infected we should swiftly visit the doctor for the emergency treatment. Hepatitis B is destroying lives, don’t wait before you end up on the other side like my mother.

Ogungbile Emmanuel oludotun