There are many causes of hepatitis, but this brochure concentrates on some of the most common types of hepatitis - those caused by viruses.
Viral hepatitis is inflammation in the liver caused by one of several possible viruses.
Usually acute hepatitis will get better completely and the virus will leave the body. Sometimes a virus may cause chronic hepatitis damage to the liver which usually does not get better by itself. Chronic hepatitis does not always follow on from acute hepatitis. Sometimes it is diagnosed out of the blue in someone who has never been jaundiced. If chronic hepatitis goes on for several years, the liver may repair itself without much damage, or it may respond by making scar tissue.