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What Is Hepatitis B? Hepatitis C: Are You a Silent Carrier?

Hepatitis

ABCs of Hepatitis

Summary & Participants

Many people with viral hepatitis don't know they are infected. Listen as experts discuss who should be tested and review the causes, prevention and treatment of the various types of hepatitis.

Medically Reviewed On: July 05, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Hepatitis, literally, inflammation of the liver, has many causes, including medications, excessive alcohol use and gall bladder or pancreas diseases. But for millions of Americans, hepatitis results from infection with a virus. In serious cases, and when chronic, hepatitis can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and eventually liver failure.

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: Viral hepatitis is complicated, because there are five different common viruses, but they're simply named by the alphabet. But really, there are three main viruses, hepatitis A, B and C.

ANNOUNCER: Infection with a hepatitis virus may have two phases: acute or chronic. In the acute phase, people often are ill with symptoms such as nausea, fever and vomiting, and they may become jaundiced. An acute infection usually goes away by itself over a short period of time. However, acute infections can develop into chronic infections, which are usually more serious. Chronic infections may last a lifetime and can result in cirrhosis, or scarring, of the liver, leading to cancer of the liver or liver failure.

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: Hepatitis A is still the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis, followed by B, and followed by a distant third by hepatitis C. We don't see very much acute hepatitis C. By contrast, when we have chronic viral hepatitis, hepatitis C is far more common.

ANNOUNCER: Hepatitis A is found in the stool of an infected person and is spread when a person eats food or drinks water that has been contaminated. In the US, outbreaks often occur when people don't wash their hands after using the bathroom and then prepare food.

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: Now, fortunately, we're a cleaner country that we were when I was born. I'm age 62 now, and I can tell you that people in my age generation, about 30 or 40 percent have an antibody to hepatitis A, which means that I was infected as a kid, even though I don't know that, but I have a protective antibody. If we look at 20- and 30-year-olds in the US, there's a much, much lower likelihood they have antibodies, because they've been raised in a much cleaner, more hygienic atmosphere than we had before.

ANNOUNCER: People most at risk for hepatitis A include international travelers, particularly to Southeast Asia and India; people living in areas where outbreaks are common; people who live with or have sex with an infected person; men who have sex with men; and injection drug users.

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: Fortunately, more than 99 percent of hepatitis A goes on to recovery. But one or two cases per 1,000, roughly, will go on to a severe course that will lead to death if there's not a liver transplant.

ANNOUNCER: Hepatitis B is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person.

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