In this Article

• What is viral hepatitis?
• What are the common types of viral hepatitis?
• Who is at risk for viral hepatitis?
• What are the symptoms and signs of viral hepatitis?
• What is the prognosis of viral hepatitis?
• What is acute fulminant hepatitis?
• What is chronic viral hepatitis?
• How is viral hepatitis diagnosed?
• How is viral hepatitis treated?
• How is viral hepatitis prevented?
• Viral Hepatitis At A Glance
• Viral Hepatitis Glossary
• Viral Hepatitis Index

Who is at risk for viral hepatitis?

People who are most at risk for developing viral hepatitis are workers in the health care professions, people with multiple sexual partners, intravenous drug users, and hemophiliacs who receive blood clotting factors. Blood transfusion, once a common means of spreading viral hepatitis, now is a rare cause of hepatitis. Viral hepatitis is generally thought to be as much as ten times more common among lower socioeconomic and poorly educated individuals. About one third of all cases of hepatitis come from an unknown or unidentifiable source. This means that you don't have to be in a high risk group in order to be infected with a hepatitis virus.

What are the symptoms and signs of viral hepatitis?

The period of time between exposure to hepatitis and the onset of the illness is called the incubation period. The incubation period varies depending on the specific hepatitis virus. Hepatitis A has an incubation period of about 15-45 days; hepatitis B from 45-160 days, and hepatitis C from 2 weeks to 6 months.

Many patients infected with hepatitis A, B, and C have few or no symptoms of illness. For those who do develop symptoms of viral hepatitis, the most common are flu- like symptoms including:

• loss of appetite
• nausea
• vomiting
• fever
• weakness
• tiredness
• aching in the abdomen

Less common symptoms include:

• dark urine
• light-colored stools
• fever
• jaundice (a yellow appearance to the skin and white portion of the eyes)

Viral Hepatitis - Symptoms Experienced

The MedicineNet physician editors ask:

For viral hepatitis, what were the symptoms and signs you experienced?

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