Hepatitis Awareness Month – CDC Takes Action To Raise Awareness
Dear Colleague,
May 14, 2019
May is National Hepatitis Awareness Month and May 19 is National Hepatitis Testing Day. During this month, CDC takes action to raise awareness of viral hepatitis as a major public health threat in the United States, encourage testing to identify the millions living with these often silent infections, and provide opportunities to promote childhood and adult immunization vaccination and other interventions to prevent viral hepatitis.
Viral hepatitis is a serious disease that can result in liver disease, liver cancer, and even death. In the United States, viral hepatitis threatens the lives of millions of people, yet we have the knowledge and tools to keep people healthy against this common and deadly public health threat.
Hepatitis A and hepatitis B are vaccine-preventable, and hepatitis C is curable with a 12-week, tolerable treatment regimen, but the number of people infected or living with these diseases continues to rise. Between 2013 and 2016, an estimated 2.4 million adults were living with hepatitis C, yet only about half (55.6 percent) were aware they were infected. In 2016, an estimated 862,000 adults were living with hepatitis B, yet only one-third (33.9 percent) of adults living with hepatitis B in the United States were aware of their infection.
While hepatitis B and hepatitis C take a tremendous toll on the lives of many people in the United States, hepatitis A has emerged over the past three years to greatly impact the nation’s health. State public health officials are reporting an alarming increase in hepatitis A virus infections. Despite an available vaccine for hepatitis A, the virus continues to be a frequently reported vaccine-preventable disease in the United States.
A recent CDC article, Increase in Hepatitis A Virus Infections—United States, 2013─2018, reports that hepatitis A cases increased almost 300% during 2016-2018 compared to 2013─2015. This increase is largely due to multiple outbreaks associated with persons reporting drug use or homelessness. Of the more than 15,000 hepatitis A cases publicly reported in 2016-2018, most were related to transmission among persons who use injection and non-injection drugs, persons experiencing homelessness, men who have sex with men, and their close direct contacts. CDC has stood up an Incident Management System (IMS) to coordinate with jurisdictions to help stop the current hepatitis A outbreaks through on-site technical assistance, epidemiological support, laboratory testing, and educational resource development. CDC will continue to assist states during these outbreaks to stop the ongoing transmission of the hepatitis A virus.
There is still a lot of work ahead of us to stop the hepatitis A outbreaks and continue our work to combat hepatitis B
and hepatitis C. We have safe and effective vaccines to prevent hepatitis A and hepatitis B transmission, and we know how to prevent, treat, and cure hepatitis C. By working together, we can address the challenges that are causing increases in viral hepatitis and eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat in the United States.
We thank each of you for your hard work and commitment to viral hepatitis prevention and control. Let’s use National Hepatitis Awareness Month and National Hepatitis Testing Day as an opportunity to unite voices to spread the word about viral hepatitis.
Sincerely,
/Carolyn Wester/
Carolyn Wester, M.D
Director
Division of Viral Hepatitis
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/
/Jonathan Mermin/
Jonathan H. Mermin, M.D., MPH
RADM and Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS
Director
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/nchhstp
