Hepatitis - Overview                                     

viral disease (treatable, but not curable)

• Hepatitis is a serious virus that affects your liver.
• The most common forms of the virus are hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
• Hepatitis B is the most common form of the virus, and it is often spread through sexual contact.
• It's 100 times easier to get hepatitis B than HIV.
• Hepatitis C is spread primarily through drug use but also may be spread sexually.
• Symptoms of hepatitis include yellowing of the eyes and skin, abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting, fever, fatigue, and darkening of the urine.
• Sometimes there are no visible symptoms, but there are tests that your health care provider can do to find the virus.
• While there is no cure for hepatitis, pills or shots can treat the symptoms.

There are vaccines available to prevent being infected with hepatitis A and hepatitis B. The vaccines are safe, and you can get them from a doctor.

Hepatitis: In-depth
Hepatitis [HEP - uh - TIGHT - us] is the name for a group of viruses. Hepatitis A and hepatitis B are two different viruses, and they cause sickness in different ways, but one of the things they have in common is that they attack your liver.

Hepatitis B: Sometimes Silent, Sometimes Deadly
Hepatitis B causes very serious illnesses, and in a small number of cases, it causes death. It is usually spread from person to person when an infected person's blood and/or sex fluids, seminal fluid (pre-cum), semen (cum), vaginal wetness--are spread on the skin around the anus (butt hole) or vagina of an uninfected person.

Part of the reason why hepatitis B gets spread is because people can have the virus and not realize they are sick for a long time. In the meanwhile, when people have sex or share needles, they are running the risk of giving the virus to someone else. Some people who get sick with hepatitis B recover completely. They may not ever realize they had an infection. But some people get infected with the virus, and over time, get sick because their livers are slowly being destroyed.

Preventing Hepatitis B
If you don't come into contact with other people's blood, seminal fluid (pre-cum), semen (cum) or vaginal fluids, your risk of hepatitis B is very small. If you do choose to have sex, remember that your partner might not even know if she or he has it. By using some sort of barrier, something that keeps your vagina, penis, anus (butt hole) or mouth from touching the other person's fluids, then you are protecting yourself while you have sex. And you're not just protecting yourself against one virus, you are protecting yourself against other STDs, too.

Important POINT about Hepatitis B: There's a VACCINE!

This three-shot series protects against the illnesses caused by that virus. (Remember: hepatitis A and hepatitis B viruses are in the same family but are different! See hepatitis A for more info. on that one!).

Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is another virus in the hepatitis family that can be prevented with a vaccine. Although it's not as damaging as hepatitis B, hepatitis A makes people very sick; and it is easily preventable with a vaccine. 

Oh, That's Why Restaurant Employees Have to Wash Their Hands! However, every now and then you will hear about a hepatitis A outbreak due to an infected restaurant worker not washing his or her hands after using the bathroom.