Your liver is a vital organ that fights infections, filters blood, and processes nutrients. It needs to be at its best, otherwise its function is affected.

Hepatitis is a viral condition that targets the liver. It can keep your liver from doing its job properly, and can even lead to cancer, or the need for an organ transplant.

There are five types of viral hepatitis — hepatitis A through hepatitis E. The most common in the U.S. are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Each is caused by a specific virus and can be passed from person to person. There are effective vaccines for hepatitis A and hepatitis B, but not hepatitis C. Each, however, can be easily avoided.

Hepatitis A

This very contagious disease is in the stool and blood of an infected person. It’s transmitted when someone ingests the virus, even in microscopic amounts. There are nearly 25,000 new infections each year.

It’s most often spread from close personal contact or eating contaminated food. International travelers, men who have sex with men, people who use shared needles to inject drugs, and the unhoused are at greatest risk.

Children from 12 to 23 months are typically vaccinated against the hepatitis A virus. Children aged 2 to 18 who haven’t been vaccinated can get a “catch up” vaccination.

Symptoms — including fatigue, jaundice, nausea, and stomach pain — can last up to two months. It is more severe if the patient is HIV positive or has hepatitis B or C.

Hepatitis B

This can be transmitted through the blood, semen, or other body fluids of an infected person. It can happen through sex with an infected person, sharing needles, from mother to baby at birth, or even sharing personal items like toothbrushes and razors.

There are less than 23,000 new infections annually. However, more than 860,000 people in the U.S. live with hepatitis B. Two in three people don’t know they’re infected. Nearly half of those infected in the U.S. are Asian.

There is a vaccine for infants and children under 19 years old. It is highly effective at preventing infection.

It is typically a short-term illness. For 90% of infants, it becomes a chronic illness that can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer. For adults only 2% to 6% develop a chronic illness.

Not everyone who is infected has symptoms. Those who do present with fatigue, jaundice, nausea, poor appetite, and stomach pain.

Hepatitis C

There is no vaccine against the virus that causes hepatitis C, and more than 2.4 million people are living with it. There are more than 50,000 new infections each year. It is the leading cause of liver transplants and liver cancer.

It is most often spread by sharing needles. It’s a short-term illness for some people, but for more than half, it is a long-term infection. There are often no symptoms. When they do appear, it’s a sign of advanced liver disease.

It’s important to get tested for hepatitis C because treatments can cure most people in 8 to 12 weeks.

Hepatitis D

Only people who have been infected with hepatitis B get hepatitis D. You won’t get hepatitis D if you’re vaccinated against hepatitis B.

You can get hepatitis D at the same time you have hepatitis B or immediately after you’ve had hepatitis B.

It can be an acute, short-term infection, caused when the body fluids of an infected person enter a non-infected person. It can also be a long-term, chronic infection causing severe symptoms, long-term liver damage, and death.

Hepatitis E

This is most often found in developing countries. People are typically infected by drinking water contaminated by the feces of someone with hepatitis E.

People have gotten sick in the U.S. with hepatitis E from eating raw or undercooked pork, shellfish, venison, or wild boar meat.

Symptoms can include fatigue, jaundice, nausea, poor appetite, and stomach pain. Most people, including young children, have no symptoms. Chronic infections are also rare unless the person has a compromised immune system. Most people recover without complications.

There is no vaccine available in the United States.

Get Facts and Vaxed

Please contact AltaMed to learn about appropriate immunizations for everyone in your family at any age. We can also help you with information if you’re traveling. It’s important that we all do our part to keep the rates of infection down and to protect ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. Call us at (888) 499-9303 for information or to make an appointment.