Avoiding contact with infected blood is the only way to prevent the condition. The most common way for people to contract hepatitis C is by injecting street drugs. Because of this, the best way to prevent hepatitis C is to avoid injecting. Treatments can help many people quit. People in the U. If a person finds it difficult to stop, they can reduce the risk of contracting hepatitis C by never sharing drug equipment, ensuring a clean, hygienic environment, and always using new equipment, including syringes, ties, alcohol swabs, cottons, and cookers.
People who may come into contact with infected blood, such as healthcare workers and caretakers, should always wash the hands thoroughly with soap and water after any contact, or suspected contact, with blood.
People can also reduce their risk by making sure that any tattoo artist or body piercer they visit uses fresh, sterile needles and unopened ink. The risk of contracting hepatitis C through sexual contact is low. Using barrier protection, such as condoms, reduces the risk of most sexually transmitted infections.
There are many misconceptions about how hepatitis C spreads. People cannot transmit or contract the virus through:. Hepatitis C can be acute or chronic. Acute infection occurs during the first 6 months after contracting it, while chronic infections can last a lifetime if the person does not seek treatment.
In many cases, hepatitis C causes no symptoms. This means that people may have the infection without knowing it. Also, it is important to note that people can transmit the virus even if they have no symptoms. The symptoms of chronic hepatitis C do not usually appear until a person has had the infection for some time.
Most commonly, a person will learn that they have a liver problem after undergoing a blood test for another condition. Their blood test may show an imbalance in their liver enzymes due to some sort of hepatitis in general. However, people who have hepatitis C can still have normal liver enzyme tests.
Because many of these symptoms are nonspecific and can occur with any cause of liver inflammation, people may not realize or even consider that they could have hepatitis C.
Doctors recommend that certain groups undergo testing for hepatitis C. These groups include people with symptoms and people who:. If the blood test identifies antibodies to the hepatitis C virus, a doctor will order further testing to confirm whether or not the person has the active hepatitis C virus. Early diagnosis and treatment can improve the outlook for hepatitis C.
Without treatment, the condition can cause life threatening complications, including cirrhosis liver scarring , liver failure, and liver cancer. There are vaccines to prevent hepatitis A and hepatitis B; however, there is no vaccine for hepatitis C. People who get hepatitis A may feel sick for a few weeks to several months but usually recover completely and do not have lasting liver damage. In rare cases, hepatitis A can cause liver failure and even death; this is more common in older people and in people with other serious health issues, such as chronic liver disease.
In , a total of 12, hepatitis A cases were reported in the United States. Since , person-to-person outbreaks of hepatitis A have been occurring across the United States mainly among people who use injection drugs or are experiencing homelessness, resulting in more than 32, cases.
Since the hepatitis A vaccine was first recommended in , cases of hepatitis A in the United States declined dramatically. Unfortunately, in recent years the number of people infected has been increasing because there have been multiple outbreaks of hepatitis A in the United States resulting from person-to-person contact, especially among people who use drugs, people experiencing homelessness, and men who have sex with men.
The hepatitis A virus is found in the stool and blood of people who are infected. The hepatitis A virus is spread when someone ingests the virus even in amounts too small to see through:. Hepatitis A can be spread from close, personal contact with an infected person, such as through certain types of sexual contact like oral-anal sex , caring for someone who is ill, or using drugs with others.
Hepatitis A is very contagious, and people can even spread the virus before they feel sick. Contamination of food with the hepatitis A virus can happen at any point: growing, harvesting, processing, handling, and even after cooking.
Contamination of food and water happens more often in countries where hepatitis A is common. Although uncommon, foodborne outbreaks have occurred in the United States from people eating contaminated fresh and frozen imported food products.
Although anyone can get hepatitis A, in the United States, certain groups of people are at higher risk for getting infected and for having severe disease if they do get hepatitis A. If you think you have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus, call your health professional or your local or state health department as soon as possible, ideally within 2 weeks. A health professional can decide next steps based on your age and overall health.
A single shot of the hepatitis A vaccine can help prevent hepatitis A if given within 2 weeks of exposure. Depending upon your age and health, your doctor may recommend immune globulin in addition to the hepatitis A vaccine.
The hepatitis A virus can survive outside the body for months. Exposure to freezing temperatures does not kill the virus. Not everyone with hepatitis A has symptoms.
Adults are more likely to have symptoms than children. If symptoms develop, they usually appear 2 to 7 weeks after infection. Symptoms usually last less than 2 months, although some people can be ill for as long as 6 months. Many people, especially children, have no symptoms but can still spread the infection. In addition, a person can transmit the hepatitis A virus to others up to 2 weeks before symptoms appear.
A doctor can determine if you have hepatitis A by discussing your symptoms and ordering a blood test that can tell whether you have been recently infected with the virus that causes hepatitis A. To treat the symptoms of hepatitis A, doctors usually recommend rest, adequate nutrition, and fluids.
Some people with severe symptoms will need medical care in a hospital. The best way to prevent hepatitis A is through vaccination with the hepatitis A vaccine.
To get the full benefit of the hepatitis A vaccine, more than one shot is needed. The number and timing of these shots depends on the type of vaccine you are given. Practicing good hand hygiene — including thoroughly washing hands after using the bathroom, changing diapers, and before preparing or eating food — plays an important role in preventing the spread of hepatitis A. People at increased risk for severe disease from hepatitis A infection. There are two types of hepatitis A vaccine.
The first type, the single-dose hepatitis A vaccine, is given as two shots, 6 months apart, and both shots are needed for long-term protection against hepatitis A. The other type is a combination vaccine that protects people against both hepatitis A and hepatitis B.
The combination vaccine can be given to anyone 18 years of age and older and is given as three shots over 6 months. All three shots are needed for long-term protection for both hepatitis A and hepatitis B.
Yes, both types of hepatitis A vaccine are highly effective in preventing hepatitis A virus infection. Receiving the entire vaccine series all of the required shots results in long-term protection. Yes, the hepatitis A vaccine is safe. No serious side effects have been reported from the hepatitis A vaccine. That said, there have been cases of acute hepatitis that could not be attributed to one of these five types of hepatitis viruses, alcohol, drugs, or autoimmune disease, which lead researchers to try to find another cause.
Though the etiology of these viruses have not yet been fully established, researchers have identified three other types of viral hepatitis and their associated viruses , which they have named hepatitis F HFV , hepatitis G HFG , and transfusions transmitted virus TTV. As relatively new diseases and viral discoveries, information about them and how they work is relatively scarce. We do know, however, that cases of TTV have only been associated with hepatitis in people who have had a blood transfusion.
To be exposed to these viruses, you must ingest fecal matter that is infected with the virus. While there are several ways in which this fecal-oral route can be established, poor hygiene and poor sanitary conditions in some countries lead to higher rates of infection of these viruses.
As a result, some areas of the world, like India, Bangladesh, and Central and South America, are particularly prone to the hepatitis E virus. About one-third of people in the United States have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus. It is believed that the hepatitis F virus HFV may also be spread by enteric routes. Parenteral simply means that these viruses can be introduced by all routes except through the intestinal tract, which leaves the door wide open in terms of possible exposure.
Let's look at the possible transmission routes for each of these types of hepatitis virus more closely. It is possible for the hepatitis B virus to be spread through the bodily fluids of an infected person, which is to say that the virus can be transmitted through the blood, sweat, tears, saliva , semen, vaginal secretions, menstrual blood, and breast milk of an infected person.
That said, having hepatitis B does not necessarily mean that you are infectious; only some people with HBV are actually contagious. Opportunities for exposure can include sharing a syringe or getting tattoos or body piercings with infected tools. But it also means that it is possible to be exposed during childbirth as well as sexual contact and intercourse. In fact, nearly two-thirds of acute cases of hepatitis B in the United States are caused by sexual exposure.
Though HBV can be spread through blood, there is generally very little risk of contracting the virus through blood transfusions as most countries began screening for it by The hepatitis C virus is transmitted primarily through blood to blood contact, meaning that a person can become infected with the virus should the blood of a person who carries the virus be introduced into another person's bloodstream.
Therefore, as with hepatitis B, blood transfusions prior to in this case , tattooing and body piercing, occupational exposure, medical procedures, and intravenous drug use can all lead to possible exposure to the virus.
Unlike hepatitis B, however, sexual contact and childbirth have both been shown to be an inefficient route of exposure to HCV.
The hepatitis G virus is thought to be transmitted in a similar way to HCV. The hepatitis D virus is transmitted in the same way as hepatitis B. Others get the hepatitis D virus separately when they are already infected by HBV which is known as superinfection. Read more about signs and symptoms of hepatitis.
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