The hepatitis viruses A to E are grouped together because they
Answer: C
The grouping is clinical rather than taxonomic: they belong to five different families, carry different genomes and spread by different routes, but each targets the liver. That is why their epidemiology and prevention differ so much.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Which one of the following hepatitis viruses is naked, without an envelope?
Answer: D
Correct answer: Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is a naked picornavirus, and its lack of an envelope makes it resistant to acid, detergents and drying - which is exactly what a virus spread by the faecal-oral route needs. B, C and D are all enveloped, correspondingly fragile outside the body, and spread by blood rather than through the gut.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Standard precautions in a hospital are designed to
Answer: A
Because infection is often silent, the safe assumption is that any blood may carry a blood-borne virus, so barrier precautions apply to everyone rather than to those known to be infected. Vaccination complements the practice rather than replacing it.
Please log in or register to report this question.
The recommended action after a needlestick from a hepatitis B positive source, in an unvaccinated person, is
Answer: B
Passive antibody gives immediate cover while the vaccine builds a lasting response, so the two are given together and promptly. Antibiotics have no role against a virus, and waiting loses the chance to prevent infection.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Hepatitis B vaccination is given at birth in many countries because
Answer: C
Correct answer: infection acquired then is very likely to become chronic
The risk of chronicity falls steeply with age at infection: about 90 per cent in a newborn, 30 per cent in a young child, under 5 per cent in an adult. Since chronic infection carries the risk of cirrhosis and cancer, preventing infection at birth prevents most of the disease burden.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Which hepatitis virus is most strongly associated with hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide?
Answer: D
Correct answer: Hepatitis B
Chronic hepatitis B is the leading cause of hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide, and the risk is present even without cirrhosis because the virus integrates into the host genome. Hepatitis C also causes it but generally by way of cirrhosis, and universal infant vaccination against B has already reduced childhood liver cancer where it has been introduced.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Alcohol consumption in a person with chronic viral hepatitis
Answer: A
Correct answer: accelerates progression to cirrhosis
Alcohol and chronic viral hepatitis injure the liver by different routes and their effects compound, so fibrosis advances considerably faster than either would produce alone. Abstinence is therefore part of the management of chronic hepatitis rather than incidental advice.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Anicteric hepatitis means hepatitis
Answer: B
Many infections run their course without the patient ever becoming yellow, particularly in young children, so the illness passes as a non-specific feverish upset. Such cases are missed clinically and contribute substantially to spread.
Please log in or register to report this question.
The chief reason hepatitis C went undetected for so long in infected people is that
Answer: C
Chronic infection is typically silent for years or decades while fibrosis advances quietly, so many were diagnosed only when liver disease became apparent. That is why testing has moved to offering it by age group rather than waiting for symptoms.
Please log in or register to report this question.
Hepatitis A vaccine consists of
Answer: D
Correct answer: inactivated whole virus
The hepatitis A vaccine is whole virus grown in culture and killed with formalin, which gives excellent and long-lasting protection. This contrasts with the hepatitis B vaccine, which is a recombinant surface protein produced in yeast and contains no virus at all.
Please log in or register to report this question.
