What Causes Hepatitis D?
What are the causes of
hepatitis D? There is only one cause of hepatitis D -- an infection with the hepatitis D virus (also known as HDV or the delta hepatitis agent). The hepatitis D virus is a small RNA virus that belongs to the genus
Deltavirus. However, there is one important difference between hepatitis D and other
types of viral hepatitis. A person who is infected with the hepatitis D virus must also have a
hepatitis B infection in order for the hepatitis D virus to multiply. This is not the case with other types of
viral hepatitis.
When a person is infected with the hepatitis D virus (and either has active hepatitis B or is co-infected with hepatitis B at the same time), the virus is able to enter liver cells from the blood and then use those cells to make more copies of the hepatitis D virus. As more and more of the hepatitis D virus is made in the liver cells, they can become damaged and may even die.
A person infected with the hepatitis D virus may develop a sudden onset of fever, extreme tiredness, nausea, a lack of appetite, abdominal pain (or stomach pain), and yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes (known as jaundice). Yet, not everyone infected with the hepatitis D virus will develop symptoms. With hepatitis D, a person can also develop a long-term liver infection (known as chronic hepatitis D).
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