Hepatitis simply means inflammation of the liver. Several common viruses, designated by letters, cause hepatitis. Hepatitis A, B and C, the most common types of hepatitis, the Centers for Disease Control states, infect around 85,000 people in the United States each year. Chronic hepatitis is the most common reason for liver transplantation and liver cancer in the United States.
Hepatitis A
The hepatitis A virus, most often transmitted through contaminated water or food or through contact with an infected person, is often a mild disease with no long-term effects. Symptoms, which appear within two to six weeks, include fever, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, lack of appetite, light-colored stools, itching and jaundice, according to Medline Plus. Children under age 6 have no symptoms 70 percent of the time, according to the CDC. Recovery can take three to six months, but hepatitis A does not become chronic. The hepatitis A virus doesn't remain in the body once the active infection passes.
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B (HBV), a virus transmitted in bodily fluids, can be acute or chronic. Symptoms appear approximately within two to three months after a person is infected, and include abdominal pain, joint pain, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, dark urine and jaundice, according to the Mayo Clinic. Approximately 95 percent of adults who contract HBV do not develop chronic disease, while 90 percent of babies and 20 to 50 percent of small children will develop chronic HBV, the CDC reports.
Long-term effects of chronic HBV include liver failure, liver cancer and cirrhosis, scarring and destruction of the liver tissue. Chronic HBV also increases the risk of developing another hepatitis infection--Hepatitis D, which only people with HBV can contract. Hepatitis B also increases the chance of developing kidney failure and inflammation of the blood vessels, called vasculitis.
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C (HCV), the most serious of the hepatitis viruses, according to the Mayo Clinic, often has no symptoms at all when first contracted. Symptoms often don't appear for years or even decades. Flulike illness, with fatigue, fever, joint and muscle pains, liver tenderness, nausea and decreased appetite, affect some people newly infected with HCV. HCV attacks the liver, often causing long-term damage that can lead to cirrhosis and the need for liver transplant. HCV spreads through the blood, and is most often transmitted by sharing drug needles. Around 15 to 25 percent of people with hepatitis C don't develop chronic disease, the CDC states.
Long-term complications of chronic hepatitis C include cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure leading to a need for transplantation. Between 60 and 70 percent of infected people develop chronic liver disease, and 5 to 20 percent develop cirrhosis, according to the CDC.
