Hepatitis Health Article

Definition

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Infectious or viral hepatitis is caused by a viral infection. The three most common forms of viral hepatitis recognized to cause liver disease are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C (previously called hepatitis non-A, non-B). Other recognized types of hepatitis are hepatitis D, hepatitis E, and hepatitis G.

Hepatitis A

Most patients with acute hepatitis A, even when severe, begin feeling better in two to three weeks, and recover completely in four to eight weeks. After recovering from hepatitis A, a person no longer carries the virus and remains immune for life. In the United States, serious complications are infrequent and deaths are rare. In the United States, as many as 75% of adults over the age of 50 will have blood test evidence of previous hepatitis A.

Hepatitis B

Each year an estimated 150,000 persons in the United States get hepatitis B. More than 10,000 will require hospital care, and as many as 5,000 will die from complications of the infection. About 90% of those infected will have only acute disease. A large majority of these patients will recover within three months. It is the remaining 10% with chronic infection who account for most serious complications and deaths from HBV infection. In the United States, perhaps only 2% of all infected will become chronically ill. People infected with both HIV and hepatitis B are most likely to die than from either disease alone. Even when no symptoms of liver disease develop, chronic carriers remain a threat to others by serving as a source of infection.

Hepatitis C

In roughly one-fifth of patients who develop hepatitis C, the acute infection will subside, and they will recover completely within four to eight weeks and have no later problems. Other patients face two risks: they themselves may develop chronic liver infection and possibly serious complications such as liver cancer, and they will continue carrying the virus and may pass it on to others. The overall risk of developing cirrhosis is about 15% for all patients infected by HCV. Liver failure is less frequent in patients with chronic hepatitis C than it is for those with other forms of hepatitis. In those people who also have AIDS, hepatitis C infection increases the chance for liver cancer.