What is Hepatitis?

Get an overview of Hepatitis.

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Home | What is Hepatitis C?

WHAT IS HEPATITIS?

Hepat (liver) + itis (inflammation)

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. It may be caused by viruses, alcohol, drugs and other toxins.

Image of a healthy liver and a diseased liver

The three main hepatitis viruses are hepatitis A, B & C.

Hepatitis C affects 5 million people in the United States and over 200 million people in the world. It is the leading cause of liver transplantation in the United States.

	HEPATITIS A	HEPATITIS B	HEPATITIS C
Incubation	2 to 7 weeks	6 to 23 weeks	2 to 25 weeks

Transmission	Fecal/oral route; person to person contact; contaminated food or water	Contact with infected blood; contaminated IV needles; mother to newborn; sexual contact	Contact with infected blood; contaminated IV needles; sharing personal hygiene implements; less than 5% mother to newborn; not easily spread through sex

Symptoms	Jaundice, fatigue, nausea & vomiting, abdominal pain, fever	May have none; mild flu-like symptoms, jaundice, fatigue, fever	Same as hepatitis B

Impact of Disease	Never becomes chronic; self-limiting	Becomes chronic in 10% of cases	Becomes chronic in 75 – 85% of cases

Vaccine	Yes, two doses	Yes, three doses	No

For questions about Harvoni or Sovaldi providers & patients call 1-855-769-7284
Or visit the following websites:

www.harvoni.com

www.gilead.com

www.mysupportpath.com

Patient Advocate Foundation call 1-800-532-5274 or visit www.patientadvocate.org

For Questions about Viekira Pak
Call 1-844-2-PROCEED (1-844-277-6233)
or visit www.viekira.com

For questions about Olysio
Call 1-855-65-99747 or visit www.olysio.com