Hepatitis is a family of liver diseases that make your liver swell and stop it from working right. There’s an alphabet of hepatitis viruses: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
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Hepatitis A
- Who Can Get It:
-
Anyone, especially if you:
- Live with someone who has hepatitis A
- Go to daycare
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- Work in a daycare center
- Are a man who has sex with a man
- Travel to countries where hepatitis A is common
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- How It Spreads:
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- Close personal contact
- Eating food prepared by someone with hepatitis A
- Drinking water contaminated with hepatitis A
- Protect Yourself
-
- Wear gloves if you have to touch someone else’s stool (poop) and wash your hands afterwards
- Drink bottled water when in another country, don’t use ice cubes or wash food in tap water
- Hepatitis A vaccine
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- Protect Others
-
- Always wash hands after using toilet
- Always wash hands before fixing food or eating utensils and before eating
- Don’t donate blood or plasma
- Always use a condom during sex
- Symptoms
-
- Tiredness
- Nausea
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Stomach pain
- Diarrhea
|
Occasionally, people experience
- Dark yellow urine
- Light-colored stools
- Yellowish eyes and skin
Or, no symptoms at all |
- Treatment
-
- Bed rest
- Prescription Medicine
- No alcohol
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Hepatitis B
- Who Can Get It:
-
| Anyone who comes in contact with infected: |
- Blood
- Semen
|
|
| It is NOT spread by: |
- Shaking hands
- Sitting next to an infected person
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- Hugging
- Talking to an infected person
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- How It Spreads:
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- Having sex with an infected person without using a condom
- Sharing drug needles
- Getting a tattoo or body piercing with dirty tools
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- Getting pricked with a needle that has infected blood on it
- Sharing a toothbrush or razor with an infected person
- Breast milk
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- Protect Yourself
-
- Don’t use an infected person’s toothbrush, razor, or anything else that could have blood on it
- If you get a tattoo or body piercing, make sure the instruments are clean and sterilized
|
- Use a condom when you have sex
- Don’t share drug needles with anyone
- Wear gloves if you have to touch anyone’s blood
- Hepatitis B vaccine
|
- Protect Others
-
- Don’t donate blood or plasma
- Don’t donate your organs
- Always use a condom during sex
- Symptoms
-
- Tiredness
- Nausea
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Stomach pain
- Diarrhea
|
Occasionally, people experience
- Dark yellow urine
- Light-colored stools
- Yellowish eyes and skin
Or, no symptoms at all |
- Treatment
-
- Bed rest
- Shots of medicine
- Liver transplant
-
Hepatitis C
- Who Can Get It:
-
| Anyone who comes in contact with infected blood and, rarely, semen |
| It is NOT spread by: |
- Shaking hands
- Hugging
- Kissing an infected person
|
- Sitting next to an infected person
- Talking to an infected person
|
- How It Spreads:
-
- Sharing drug needles
- Getting a tattoo or body piercing with dirty tools
- Getting pricked with a needle that has infected blood on it
- In rare cases, hepatitis C is spread by sexual contact – especially if you or your partner has other sexually transmitted diseases
|
- Using an infected person’s toothbrush, razor, or anything that could have blood on it
- If you had a blood transfusion or organ transplant before 1992, you might have hepatitis C.
- Being born to an infected mother
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- Protect Yourself
-
- Don’t share drug needles with anyone
- Wear gloves if you have to touch anyone’s blood
- If you have several sex partners, use a condom during sex
|
- Don’t use an infected person’s toothbrush, razor, or anything else that could have blood on it
- If you get a tattoo or body piercing, make sure the instruments are clean and sterilized
|
- Protect Others
-
- Don’t give blood or plasma
- Don’t donate your organs
- Always use a condom during sex
- Symptoms
-
- Tiredness
- Nausea
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Stomach pain
- Diarrhea
- Many people do not have symptoms
|
- Some feel like they’re coming down with the flu
Occasionally, people experience
- Dark yellow urine
- Light-colored stools
- Yellowish skin and eyes
|
- Treatment
-
- Shots of medicine
- Liver transplant
-
Hepatitis D
- Must have hepatitis B to have D, which is a defective virus
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Hepatitis E
- Similar to A – not usually in the United States
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Hepatitis F
- A newly discovered mutation that has emerged in western Europe, the United States, and India
Possibly spread by food and water contaminated with fecal matter
-
Hepatitis G
- Similar to C – but does’t cause chronic infection. No treatment other than bed rest is usually ordered
If you suspect you could have hepatitis, make an appointment with your health care provider. The sooner you are diagnosed with hepatitis the better. Your liver does many things to keep you alive. You need to keep it healthy, and early treatment helps. |
