Bachchan got the disease after his accident working in ‘Coolie’.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has revealed that he was an acute Hepatitis B patient and almost lost 75 percent of his liver due to late diagnosis of the disease. He was launching a Hepatitis awareness campaign in Mumbai on Monday.
“Hepatitis B came to me accidentally. By the time it was diagnosed, only one fourth of my liver was left,” said Bachchan during the awareness campaign kicked off by the union health ministry and UNICEF.
Big B who is also an ambassador for UNICEF’s Hepatitis B awareness program wrote in his blog that, “Almost 60 collective bottles of blood was pumped into me during my accident in Coolie. One infusion was carrying the dreaded virus Australian antigen Hep B. It remained in my body and silently ate up my liver, took away 75% of it until during a routine examination in the mid-2000s, say around 2004 or 5, it was discovered. I am now surviving on a 25% liver, under constant medication and being labelled as a Chronic Cirrhosis of the Liver condition – a condition normally described for alcoholics. But as all know, I do not drink!!”
Senior Bachchan also said, “I went through a medical course and during all my ailments, I relied on medical experts and doctors in my country despite having the means to do go abroad but I had faith in the medical professionals and doctors of India. When we took a second opinion abroad, I found out that whatever diagnosis was commanded to me by Indian was no different from the foreign ones.”
He added: “But I live and work and play and act and conduct normal family activities .. awareness and timely detection has done it for me .. it could get worse, for it is in remission now, and monitored regularly. And that is but one of my many serious ailments that plague me” he added.
Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) which affects the liver. It can cause both acute and chronic infections. The virus is contracted by exposure to infectious blood during transfusion or through body fluids. A patient affected with the virus doesn’t show any symptoms in the early stage but after a while patients start showing symptoms such as vomiting, yellowish skin, feeling tired, dark urine and abdominal pain.