Basic Facts About Hepatitis A, B, and C

How you can contract it; Functions of the liver; What can happen when hepatitis progresses--fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver failure

Hepatitis is considered one of the most prevalent health problems of the 1990s. The World Health Organization reports that 1.4 million cases of Hepatitis A are treated annually worldwide. In the United States, close to 5 million adults have hepatitis B or C, and this may be only a small percentage of the total of infected individuals.

Hepatitis A:
Hepatitis A (HAV), the most prevalent type of hepatitis worldwide, strikes more than 150,000 people in the United States annually.

Hepatitis B:
Each year, more than 250,000 people contract hepatitis B (HBV) in the United States.

Hepatitis C:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that up to 30,000 individuals acquire hepatitis C (HCV) infections in the United States each year. In other parts of the world, the rates of infection and numbers in infected individuals range as high as 20 percent of the population. Called "an emerging public health threat" and the "silent epidemic," hepatitis C is a leading cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer, and is now the leading reason for liver transplantation in the United States.

Risk factors

Major risk factors for Hepatitis A
The CDC lists household or sexual contact, day care attendance or employment, and recent international travel to areas with poor sanitation as major known risk factors for infection with hepatitis A. Eating food prepared by infected food handlers and using contaminated needles are other risk factors.

Major risk factors for Hepatitis B
In the United States, the major risk factors for hepatitis B are unprotected sex with multiple partners and intravenous (IV) drug use.

Major risk factors for Hepatitis C
The major risk factors for acquiring hepatitis C are IV drug use and transfusion of blood or blood products prior to 1992. Other risk factors also contribute.

 

Hepatitis