July 28 is World Hepatitis Day, a day designated for awareness and education about the different types of viral hepatitis that impact millions all over the globe.
Viral hepatitis is the group of infectious diseases including hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E, and while fewer people are dying from diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, unfortunately, deaths from hepatitis are increasing.
To put the impact of viral hepatitis in perspective, here are some quick facts.
- Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C are the most common types of viral hepatitis in the U.S.
- Some sources estimate as many as 66,100 new cases of viral hepatitis in 2016. In Pennsylvania, 329 cases were reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that new, acute cases of hepatitis A, B, and C are vastly underreported—making these numbers much smaller than the actual occurrence of new viral hepatitis cases each year.
- Viral hepatitis caused 1.34 million deaths worldwide in World Health Organization data shows there are about 325 million people living with chronic hepatitis B or chronic hepatitis C.
The likelihood of contracting viral hepatitis, either A, B, or C, depends on many different factors. Each type of the virus is contracted in different ways, calls for different treatments, lasts for different amounts of time, and has different health impacts. The most sever impacts of hepatitis B and C include chronic liver disease, cancer, and even death.
These types of viral hepatitis target populations unevenly, making people especially vulnerable if they are of a certain age, frequently travel to other countries, or are often exposed to other people’s blood and/or other body fluids. To read more about the different types of viral hepatitis, who is most at risk, the severity, common symptoms, and vaccination recommendations for each type, go to the CDC’s ABCs of Hepatitis guide.