Hepatitis is caused by Three viruses that infect the liver:

• Hepatitis A Virus (HAV)
• Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)
• Hepatitis C Virus (HCV).

Hepatitis A is found in feces.

You can get it from someone by anal contact.

That is, by oral anal contact, or, for example by being exposed to their stool through food.

Like if a restaurant worker doesn't wash their hands after having a bowel movement.

Hepatitis B is transmitted by being exposed to the bodily fluids of someone who already has it.

These bodily fluids include:

• blood
• semen
• vaginal secretions
• saliva

It is easy to pass Hepatitis B from parents to children as well.

Risky sexual activities include:

• insertive and receptive oral sex
• oral anal contact
• anal sex
• and vaginal sex.

Unless bodily fluids are exchanged, you can't get viral hepatitis from foreplay, fondling, massaging, or hugging someone, and even kissing seems to be low risk.

In the first stage of hepatitis infection there are the symptoms of:

• nausea
• vomiting
• stomach pain
• and headaches.

These symptoms aren't unique to viral hepatitis, so it's hard to know if you have it just from these signs.

Your doctor can do blood tests to see if you really have it or not.

In the second stage:

• all the lymph nodes in your body swell ("swollen glands")
• and liver damage occurs.

There is a lot of pain on the right side of the belly. Usually, a person's eyes and skin turn yellow.

This is a sign that the liver isn't working very well.

In the final stage of hepatitis:

• a person recovers from the disease.

It takes a lot of rest to get back to normal, but there may be permanent liver damage.

A recovering person may also feel tired all the time.


In Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C:

some people have "chronic active" hepatitis.

This is where the infection continues throughout their life until the liver fails.

They will need a liver transplant to get better.

And others may carry the virus and infect others, but not have symptoms themselves.

You can get vaccinated against Hepatitis B.

Ask your doctor if you don't know whether or not you've been vaccinated.

Contact your doctor as soon as you think you may have gotten an STD the sooner you are treated, the better your chances of recovery, and it is less likely you will get complications.

Also, have your partners checked out, and stop having sex until you get better. Otherwise, you and your partners could keep passing the disease back and forth to each other.

If the liver is so damaged that it just can't work, then it is possible that the infected person will die.

A transplant can save their lives.

A very damaged liver can also cause bleeding from the stomach, as well as injury to the kidneys, lungs, and brain.

Some people have "chronic" hepatitis, which means that they have an infection for the rest of their lives, and never totally get over it.

Also, the viruses that cause viral hepatitis can cause cancer of the liver, and it's not all that rare!