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What
is Hepatitis A?
Hepatitis
A is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal liver
disease. Historically, it was called infectious
hepatitis. Today, the disease is more commonly
known as hepatitis A, named after the virus that
causes it. Each year, approximately 1.4 million
people worldwide and 143,000 people in the United
States become infected with hepatitis A, costing
patients and employers millions of dollars in
lost wages and lost productivity.
The
incidence of hepatitis A varies throughout the
world. A. In unprotected people traveling to highly
endemic areas, hepatitis A occurs 10 to 100 times
more frequently than typhoid fever and 1,000 times
more often than cholera. Outbreaks of hepatitis
A also occur in areas of low endemicity, including
the United States.
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