About Hepatitis Infections

Hepatitis A


Hepatitis B


Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is spread primarily by contact with blood and blood products. The use of injection illicit drugs is the most common mode of disease transmission including those people who injected illicit drugs only one time many years ago. People who received blood transfusions, transfusion of blood products or organ donations prior to 1992, when sensitive tests for HCV were introduced for blood screening, are at risk for hepatitis C infection, as are persons who received clotting factors prior to 1987. Other persons at risk for hepatitis C include long-term kidney dialysis patients, people with tattoos and body piercing other than pierced ears, health care workers after exposures (i.e., needle stick or splashes to the eye) from the blood of an infected person while on the job, infants born to HCV-infected mothers, people with high-risk sexual behavior, multiple partners and sexually transmitted diseases, people who snort cocaine using shared equipment, and people who have shared toothbrushes, razors and other personal items with a family member who is HCV-infected.