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When it’s hepatitis
For anyone who has hepatitis A, B or C, anyone who thinks they were exposed or wonders whether to be tested, and the people who live with them. This page passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health, says: the symptoms and why there are often none, who should be tested, how each one spreads and how it doesn’t, the vaccines, the medicines that cure hepatitis C, pregnancy and babies, and who to call. It builds the questions to ask at a visit and prints a card. Take only what you need today.
Before anything else
- Think you just had contact with hepatitis A or B? Time matters. NIDDK says: see your doctor right away. For hepatitis B, it says the vaccine dose and, if needed, a medicine called HBIG must be given shortly after encountering the virus, preferably within 24 hours. For hepatitis A, it says a dose of the vaccine or a medicine called immune globulin may protect you if taken soon after contact.
- Taking antiviral medicines for hepatitis B? NIDDK says: don’t stop taking the medicines without first talking with your doctor.
- The pages we read give no list of emergency signs. That is not a promise that there are none: NIDDK says that in rare cases hepatitis A and acute hepatitis B can lead to liver failure. In an emergency, call 911.
- Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour.
More help
- Keeping track: My medicines and the Symptom diary.
- Before a visit: Get ready for your appointment.
- No insurance, or a bill you can’t pay: When you need a doctor and can’t pay and When a medical bill is too much.
- Alcohol or drugs: When drinking or drugs have become a problem.
- Pregnancy: Pregnant, or with a new baby.
- Other diagnoses: When it’s HIV and When the doctor says cancer.
- How you feel: When the heaviness won’t lift and When the worry won’t switch off.
- All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse, pharmacist or liver specialist has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 7, 2026 on four pages of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (niddk.nih.gov): “What Is Viral Hepatitis?”, “Hepatitis A”, “Hepatitis B” and “Hepatitis C”, each last reviewed December 2024; and on the American Liver Foundation’s own Contact Us page (liverfoundation.org), for its Helpline. What is marked “ours” is our own. A caution about dates: who should get which vaccine is set nationally and can change; NIDDK’s pages are from December 2024 and we did not read the current national schedule, so ask a doctor or pharmacist. What we left out or did not read: hepatitis D and E beyond one sentence each; the names and amounts of any medicine; what tests or medicines cost, and the names of the programs that help pay; how many people have each kind; the laws on telling an employer, a school or anyone else; where to get tested; syringe services; and any list of signs that mean go to an emergency room, because the pages we read give none. We called no number. It saves nothing and loads no tracking.