Care and Mobility Considerations
Hepatitis A
Because of the short lived nature of the condition and its spontaneous resolution, there are unlikely to be any functional restrictions leading to care/mobility needs.
Hepatitis B
Someone recovering from acute hepatitis B infection may experience fatigue and lethargy for a few months. Recovery is usually complete, and symptoms would not be so severe, that it is likely that help would be necessary with personal care or walking would be restricted to any degree.
Chronic hepatitis B carriers are generally asymptomatic and do not have functional restrictions on a day-to-day basis.
People with established chronic hepatitis B may experience some non-specific symptoms of malaise and fatigue. These are unlikely to limit activities in the early years but may become more prominent with time. Late complications including cirrhosis, ascites, portal hypertension and hepatic encephalopathy are likely to lead to decreased mobility and a need for help with self-care and supervision.
Drug treatment for chronic hepatitis may be associated with increased levels of fatigue and general debility, which may have additive effects in respect of existing functional limitations. Medical Services advice may be helpful in determining if extra help with care is necessary during the duration of treatment.
Hepatitis C
Acute hepatitis C resolves spontaneously over some weeks or a few months. There are no functional limitations that are likely to be severe or persistent.
People with positive blood tests for hepatitis C (chronic carriers) will be asymptomatic for many years and have no functional problems. Even those known to have progressive disease (chronic hepatitis C) may have few symptoms with minimal disabling effects for up to 20 years or more. With the development of cirrhosis and progressive impairment of liver function functional restrictions may be attributable to severe fatigue, weight loss, muscle weakness, jaundice, anorexia, ascites etc. Help may be needed with personal care, moving around, rising from a chair, preparing food etc. and walking may be restricted.
The side effects of the drug treatment for hepatitis C can be debilitating. They may increase the degree of functional restrictions experienced by someone who already has clinical features of liver damage. People with hepatitis C of moderate severity however may have few symptoms or functional restrictions when drug treatment commences. In these cases any resultant care needs or difficulties in walking attributable to drug side effects such as fatigue, flu like symptoms etc. should be carefully evaluated. In many cases they will not be sufficiently severe to affect personal care or to restrict mobility, and will only persist for the limited duration of the treatment.
If evidence shows that the customer has cirrhosis, which may have resulted from Chronic Hepatitis C then go to Cirrhosis guidance.
If evidence shows that the customer has liver failure, which may have resulted from Chronic Hepatitis C then go to the Liver Failure guidance.
