Question

Mary is 39 year old LPN and single mother who is attending a local community college to prepare for an A S degree in nursing, so she can then become an RN. Mary has not been feeling well for several months. She has had bouts of nausea, a low fever and has found that she no longer enjoys eating and smoking as much as she used to. She has also noticed that her urine is darker than usual, and she has yellowing of her eyes. She has noted that she has a puffy appearance. Results of blood tests at her doctor's office reveal that her ALT, AST, Alkaline phosphatase, and bilirubin levels are elevated and that she also has an elevated count of lymphocytes. Further tests reveal that she is positive for the presence of the Anti-HCV in her blood. Biopsy reveals necrosis, fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Questions;

1. What is Mary's diagnosis? Discuss the different ways she has acquired this illness. Based on the information above, in what stage of illness is Mary?

Answer 1

The patient is diagnosed with Hepatitis C

Some of the different ways she could have possibly acquired this infection are

• During her LPN clinical training where she could have encountered with the blood or its products, fluids of a HCV infected patient.
• From the hospital equipments which are not sterilized properly and has spores of HCV and handling those equipment with an skin injury

The patient is in chronic stage of infection (nausea,low grade fever, feeling tired,loss of appetite, yellowing of eyes,puffy appear occurs due to leakages of the fluid causing swelling is a typical sign.)