If my girlfriend had hepatitis when she was a child due to?
Liver inflammation or hepatitis is a collective name for a number of similar inflammatory symptoms of the liver. The word hepatitis comes from Greek and Latin and consists of two parts: "" (hpar) and "-itis". Hepar means liver and the suffix -itis means inflammation. Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. The disease can have a number of different causes such as drug use, alcohol abuse, poisoning, autoimmune diseases, cholestasis and viral hepatitis. Alcohol abuse and medicines are the main non-viral causes of hepatitis. New hepatitis viruses are still being discovered that can cause inflammation of the liver, of which hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C are the best known. In addition, the viruses responsible for hepatitis D (delta virus), hepatitis E and hepatitis G are known (there was also an F variant in the past, but it turned out to be one of the other hepatitis viruses). Other virus infections that can lead to hepatitis are Pfeiffer's disease caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalemia virus infection and yellow fever. There is no reason to think that your girlfriends hepatitis was caused by a sexual transmittable pathogen like Hepatitis A virus (fecal-oral transmittable), Hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, cytomegalemia virus (a herpes virus), or Epstein-Barr virus (an other herpes virus, also known as Pfeiffer disease or kissing disease, transmittable by saliva exchange). If it is true that the cause of your girlfriends hepatitis was overconsumption of medication this means that there was no transmittable pathogen involved causing the inflammation of the liver. But it is always wise to both have a full STD test before you decide to engage in sexual acts together. Even more so if you decide to have sexual intercourse without condom, either oral, vaginal or anal sex. Even though condoms wont protect against all STDs, they do lessen the risk of transmitting certain important STDs. Either of you might be infected sometime during your life with a hepatitis causing virus without realising it, since symptoms might not show for a long period of time. There are also vaccinations available against HAV, HBV and HPV.