|
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.
|
