The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 500,000 Americans contract one of the three most common forms of hepatitis each year. Yet people know very little about the various forms of hepatitis. Nobody's marching on the White House for hepatitis. About 150,000 Americans a year get the virus, which is spread through contact with fecal material. Shellfish harvested from waters contaminated with sewage is often a culprit.
Symptoms mimic a bad bout of the flu.
Some people will experience jaundice, or a yellowing of the skin, but often hepatitis A resolves itself without the person ever knowing what it was. In all but the rarest of cases, hepatitis A clears up entirely in six months and does not develop into a chronic disease. Once you've had it, you can't get it again. Given a choice, Reisman says, hepatitis A is the type to have. That's why the CDC recommends that travelers en route to countries with questionable sanitary practices be vaccinated for hepatitis A. Hopkins says the CDC also recommends that residents in communities with frequent outbreaks of the virus should be vaccinated, as well as IV drug users and men who have sex with men.