World Hepatitis Day

July 28 marks World Hepatitis Day, an international awareness-raising day about the inflamed liver condition. Hepatitis affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, including an estimated 4.4 million living with chronic hepatitis in the United States as estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Varieties of hepatitis are spread through contact with infected blood, sexual fluids, and even microscopic fecal matter contaminations. Some prevention measures include not having unprotected sex and not sharing needles. Hepatitis is scary, but it's even scarier if it goes undiagnosed and untreated because it can cause liver failure and death. If you do not know whether or not you have hepatitis or if you are concerned that you may be infected, please consult your physician about getting tested.

To learn more about World Hepatitis Day, please check out the following links:

• World Health Organization's World Hepatitis Day Media Centre: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_hepatitis_day/en/index.html
• World Hepatitis Alliance: http://worldhepatitisalliance.org

To learn more about hepatitis, including the different kinds of hepatitis:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Viral Hepatitis: http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/
• The National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine's National Center for Biotechnology Information - Hepatitis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002139/
• World Health Organization - Hepatitis: http://www.who.int/topics/hepatitis/en/

Take care of your health for you and for the people who love you.