Do all infections with hepatitis B virus require treatment?

  A good number of people are diagnosed with hepatitis B during a physical examination, but not all people infected with the hepatitis B virus necessarily need treatment.  A positive surface antigen indicates a previous infection with the hepatitis B virus, and the patient should undergo further testing, including hepatitis B hepatitis B two-to-one, viral genes (DNA), liver and spleen ultrasound, and liver function tests. If clinical symptoms are lacking, the liver and spleen are not enlarged, and liver function is normal, then most patients are asymptomatic carriers. For such patients, the focus should be on maintaining immune stability in the body, and it is not advisable to remove the virus blindly by enhancing immune function, because on the one hand, too many drugs will increase the burden on the liver, and on the other hand, once the body’s immune tolerance is broken, it will cause the immune system to attack the infected liver cells, which will then lead to liver lesions. Interferon agents are mostly ineffective in this patient. If needed, nucleoside analogues can be used, which are direct antiviral agents and have little to do with the immune system.  For patients with chronic hepatitis B with repeatedly elevated aminotransferases, multiple and severe symptoms, and positive surface antigen, e antigen, and core antibodies, the so-called hepatitis B major triplets must be treated with antiviral, hepatoprotective, and antifibrotic therapy. In order to make the virus replication quickly inhibited, reduce liver cell damage, reduce liver fibrosis, thereby blocking the occurrence of cirrhosis. Even if the patient is not a “major triple-positive” patient, as long as the liver function is not normal for a long time, or has the early symptoms of cirrhosis, still need antiviral treatment. Drugs that have a direct inhibitory effect on the virus can be applied, and immunomodulatory drugs can also be applied to suppress the virus by strengthening the body’s immune function. Interferon preparations are legal drugs, and Chinese herbal medicines such as bitter ginseng, porcine polysaccharide and bitter leaf pearls are effective. The immune program designed to treat the virus according to the amount of infection, liver function status and immune status is not expensive and often has better long-term efficacy.   If through a hepatitis attack or by regular antiviral treatment, from hepatitis B major triplet to hepatitis B minor triplet, often indicates recovery from the disease; but if the virus gene in the serum is still high, liver function is not normal, often indicates that the virus mutation. About 70% of patients with chronic liver disease in China have this mutation. Since this mutated virus evades immune surveillance, it is often prone to develop into chronic severe hepatitis, which is more closely related to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. The treatment for such patients is similar to the aforementioned chronic hepatitis B of hepatitis B major triplet, but the diagnosis and treatment is often more difficult and often requires a combination of several drugs; for male patients with a family history of liver cancer and over 35 years of age with hepatitis B minor triplet, regular antiviral or immunomodulatory therapy is advocated to prevent the occurrence of liver cancer.  For patients with cirrhosis of the liver, treatment such as virus suppression and anti-fibrosis should be given. To reduce liver damage and stop the progression to decompensation. Long-term use of nucleotides has a containment effect.  For HBV-infected patients with normal liver function, no conscious symptoms and no liver histological changes, no treatment is needed, but liver function and liver morphology should be reviewed regularly, and liver histology should be examined if necessary.