May is Hepatitis Awareness Month, and state health officials are encouraging Hoosiers to get tested for the disease and learn how to prevent it. They say more than 7,000 cases of viral hepatitis were reported in Indiana in 2015. Additionally the number of reported acute Hepatitis C cases has risen by 400 percent since 2010.
Nearly three-fourths of infected people are unaware and are not receiving treatment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Jerome Adams says hepatitis can easily e prevented by getting vaccinated and not sharing items like razors, toothbrushes and syringes.
Hepatitis A is contracted by ingesting fecal matter of an infected individual. Hepatitis B and C are spread through contact with infected blood, by sharing razors, toothbrushes, contaminated syringes and other injection drug equipment or diabetes testing equipment, and by sharing needles used for tattoos and body piercing. Hepatitis B and C can be passed from mother to baby during pregnancy and childbirth.
Health officials say Hepatitis A is an acute illness that resolves on its own, but Hepatitis B and C can persist for decades. Symptoms may not be present, but they include nausea, anorexia, fever, malaise, abdominal pain, jaundice and dark urine.
Health officials recommend a one-time blood screening for hepatitis C for everyone born between 1945 and 1965, as well as an annual screening for those at increased risk.
Visit https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/riskassessment/index.htm to take a risk assessment.
