Patient's question:
My father used to attend banquets every day when he was in business, coming home drunk every night. Even when eating dinner at home, he would have a few sips of alcohol. Recently, he has been feeling unwell, and after a thorough check-up, it was discovered that he has alcoholic liver disease. I am very worried that it might be contagious.Doctor's answer:
If it is simple alcoholic liver disease, it will never be infectious. As an individual entity, alcoholic liver disease itself does not possess transmissibility and will never infect others. Alcoholic liver disease includes alcoholic fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, alcoholic liver fibrosis, and alcoholic cirrhosis, primarily caused by repeated fat degeneration, inflammation, and regeneration of liver cells due to long-term heavy alcohol consumption (alcoholism), and has no relation to infectious diseases such as viral infections. Therefore, as an individual entity, alcoholic liver disease is not infectious and will never infect others. For patients, if the alcoholic liver disease condition is severe, immediate symptomatic treatment should be initiated.