DEAR Dr. Fritz,

Hello, doc. My father has hepatitis B. My friends said that there is no cure for this. Is this true?

Thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

Vic Say

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Dear Vic Say,

Yes, you heard it right. At the moment there is really no cure for hepatitis B. That’s the bad news. But, the good news, there might be some hope in the offing.

Although a vaccine against the virus has been available since 1982, if you have it already, you have some real problem because if you are already infected with it, the treatment is limited. This is because the virus is able to dominate and prevail over the liver’s self-preservation mechanism. What normally happens is, at the sign of infection, the liver will switch on a signal that tells the cells to self-destruct to prevent further infection. The hepatitis B virus destroys this communications switch and tells the cells to ignore rather than fight the infection.

Now, if there is less hepatitis B virus being produced, then there is less damage to the liver. I just hope that your father only got some of them. One of the good things is, sometimes the drugs used for this disease can make the virus go away. Moreover, with all of the new exciting research today, there could be hope that someday, a complete cure will be found, especially for chronic hepatitis B. As long as there’s a flicker of hope, we should not give up.

Well, as much as there are more issues to talk about, then, let's meet again in my next issue. Until then!

Dr. Fritz

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(Dr. Fritz Legarde Espedilla is an aesthetic dermatologist and surgeon and a clinical sexologist. She is also trained in hypnotherapy and Medical Acupuncture. She is the co-host of digital page of Superbalita. She has been in the broadcast media for more than a decade and has written a book based on her 15-year stint with her radio program, “Healthy is Sexy Secrets ni Dr. Fritz.”. For your questions, you may e-mail them to dokfritz@yahoo.com. If you don’t wish your letter to be published, we regret that we can not answer them. Thank you for your understanding.)