Speaker 3
am really regretting right now not reading more about the evolutionary origins of hepititus d, because what on earth? Maybe
Speaker 2
it does deserve its whole own episode.
Speaker 2
that's literally all i have to say about it, but it is very interesting. Ok,
Speaker 5
so what about besides
Speaker 3
the vaccine? What about treatments? Are there anti viral treatments for hepititus b virus, or maybe hepbe and hepti combined? Yes, for hepititus b, there are. So
Speaker 2
there's a number of different treatments that we have, actual, none of them can cure hepetitus be. They are all used to sort of manage it and to try and reduce the rate of inflammation and complications. But pegalated interferon, which i think we talked about in our hepse episode, possibly, but that's basically like an immune modulator. You can think of it as a that can be used, and has been used, to treat hepotitus b. But there are also a number of anti virols that, in many cases, are used to treat h i v, or were used to treat h i v, and are now used to treat hep ba, so there are, again, none of them actually clear the infection, but they all just sort of help to manage ito. And what's really important about all of these is that because all of those different states immune tolerance, immune active, inactive, these different phases ofin action really vary person to person, and how severe someone's symptoms might be, like, it really varies.
Speaker 2
because someone has an infection with chronic hepotitus b doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be on treatment if they're in a phase that isn't directly cause damage. Satoca, yes, that's interesting, at least as of now, because the treatments that we do have are not without sighde effects. And in a lot of cases they have quite a lot of sighd effects. So it requires a lot of careful monitoring and everything, which makes it a lot harder to do, quite honestly.
Speaker 1
There's so much hear about this virous thaniel, so
Speaker 2
speaking of so much about this virus. Errand like, what, where did it come from? With the hek
Speaker 1
ah i will do my best to answer those questions, but let's take a quick break first. All
Speaker 1
story of hepotitus b. I feel like in the last couple of episodes i've deviated a bit from the normal history overview that i usually give. But don't worry, i'm going back to my routes for the sun. I woing to start with a bit of evolutionary history, mixed in some early accounts of infectious hepotitis, then the fascinating story of its fication, and then finally, getting us to where we are to day. The
Speaker 2
usual. They usually love it.
Speaker 1
But usual doesn't mean boring or straightforward, especially in the case of hepotitus b.