Reasons For Lack of Diagnosis
The danger of hepatitis B lies in its silent transmission and progression. Many chronic hepatitis B carriers are asymptomatic (have no symptoms) and feel perfectly healthy. Chronically infected individuals may exhibit normal blood tests for liver function and be granted a clean bill of health. The diagnosis cannot be made without a specific blood test for the presence of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), a marker for chronic infection. Since the detection of hepatitis B is so easily missed, even by doctors, it is also up to the patient to specifically request the HBsAg test. Early detection not only benefits the person tested, but prevents infection from being passed silently from one child to another, and from one generation to another.
In addition, misconceptions about the endemic nature of hepatitis B in the API population and the efficacy of US vaccination programs has led many individuals and health-care providers to overlook the need for testing for APIs.
Read more about this topic: Jade Ribbon Campaign
Famous quotes containing the words reasons for, reasons and/or lack:
“I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.”
—Uta Hagen (b. 1919)