Facts About Hepatitis A and C: CDC-OC
Article title: Facts About Hepatitis A and C: CDC-OC
Conditions: Hepatitis A, Hepatitis C
Source: CDC-OC
Facts About Hepatitis A and
C
July 4, 1997
Hepatitis A
- Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of
appetite, intermittent nausea, and diarrhea
- Estimated 125,00200,000 total infections/yearly in United
States; 84,000134,000 symptomatic infections/yearly; 100
deaths annually; 33% of Americans have evidence of past infection
(immunity)
- Illness can be prolonged or relapsing (15%), but there is no
chronic infection
- The estimated cost for treating hepatitis A is $200 million
(1991)/yearly including medical and work loss
- Hepatitis A is transmitted by fecal-oral; food/waterborne
outbreaks; or bloodborne (rare)
- Persons at-risk for infection include household/sexual
contacts of infected persons; international travelers; persons
living on American Indian reservations, Alaska Native villages,
and other regions with endemic hepatitis A
- During outbreaks: day care center employees or attendees,
homosexually active men, injecting drug users
- Hepatitis A vaccine is highly effective in preventing the
disease.
Hepatitis C
- Symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of
appetite, intermittent nausea, and vomiting
- Estimated 35,000180,000 total infections/yearly in United
States; 3,00054,000 (30%) symptomatic infections/yearly;
8,00010,000 deaths annually
- More than 85 percent of infected persons will develop chronic
infection (3.9 million Americans); 24,500
- 126,000 will develop chronic liver disease (70%)/yearly
- The estimated cost for treating hepatitis C is $600 million
(199)/yearly including medical and work loss
- Hepatitis C is transmitted by blood, sexual contact, and from
mother-to-infant
- Persons at-risk for infection include injecting drug users,
health-care workers, hemodialysis patients, persons living at a
low socioeconomic level, sexual/household contacts of infected
persons, sexually active heterosexuals, and transfusion recipients
- There is no vaccine for hepatitis C.
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