Abstract
Illness with episodes of jaundice described by Hippocrates 400 years ago probably corresponded to viral hepatitis. Two separate disease entities—‘infectious’ and ‘serum’ hepatitis were identified during early 1940s. Since 1965, five major aetiological agents—Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E have been identified. The terms ‘infectious’ and ‘serum’ indicate modes of transmission—the former is ‘faecal-oral’ route causing ‘enteric’ form, and the latter is ‘parenterally’ transmitted. The enteric form is caused by types A and E and are food and/or waterborne.
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References
Halliday ML, Kang LY, Zhou TK, Hu MD, Pan QC et al (1991) An epidemic of hepatitis A attributable to the ingestion of raw clams in Shanghai, China. J Infect Dis 164:852–859
WHO (2020) Hepatitis A (27 July 2020) https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-a
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Narayan, K.G., Sinha, D.K., Singh, D.K. (2023). Hepatitis Viruses. In: Veterinary Public Health & Epidemiology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7800-5_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7800-5_23
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