Viral Hepatitis

Hepatitis A, B, and C

Virus	Hepatitis A	Hepatitis B	Hepatitis C
Transmission Route	Faecal-oral	Infected needle or blood, sexual contact	Infected needle or blood, sexual contact
Incubation Time (acute infection)	15-50 days	45-160 days	14-180 days
Onset	Sudden	Either sudden or slow, unnoticed	Usually slow, unnoticed
Severity	Mild	Occasionally severe	Usually slow-developing and symptoms not specific or strong
Chronic form?	No	Yes	Yes
Associated with other diseases?	None	Liver cancer, cirrhosis	Liver cancer, cirrhosis
Vaccine available?	Yes	Yes	No
Common treatment	None	Chronic form - interferon, lamivudine	Chronic form - interferon (usually with ribavirin)

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