The viruses transmitted through water and food are mostly self-limited, resulting in acute illness with full resolution.

Hepatitis A can be spread through personal contact, consumption of raw sea food, or drinking contaminated water.

Identified methods of transmission include contact with blood, blood transfusion (now rare), unsanitary tattoos, sex (through sexual intercourse or contact with bodily fluids), or mother-to-child by breast feeding;[citation needed] there is minimal evidence of transplacental crossing.

Blood contact can occur by sharing syringes in intravenous drug use, shaving accessories such as razor blades, or touching wounds on infected persons.

[citation needed] Patients with chronic hepatitis B have antibodies against the virus, but not enough to clear the infected liver cells.

The continued production of virus and countervailing antibodies is a likely cause of the immune complex disease seen in these patients.

Hepatitis B is endemic in a number of (mainly South-East Asian) countries, making cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma big killers.

There are eight treatment options approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) available for persons with a chronic hepatitis B infection: alpha-interferon, pegylated interferon, adefovir, entecavir, telbivudine, lamivudine, tenofovir disoproxil and tenofovir alafenamide with a 65% rate of sustained response.

[citation needed] Hepatitis C is the most common chronic bloodborne infection in the United States, and the leading cause of liver tranplants.

It has no independent life cycle, but can survive and replicate as long as HBV infection persists in the host body.

[20] It is now classified as GB virus C.[21] In 2022, several hundred cases of acute hepatitis of probable infectious origin were reported worldwide.

[citation needed] HCC is a major cause of death in patients with chronic HCV infection.

[27] Risk factors that can lead to the development of HCC in those with chronic HCV include synchronous liver diseases, viral genotype, diabetes mellitus, and obesity.

[3] The purpose of HCV treatment is to eliminate the infection, reduce the transmission to other people and decrease the risk of HCC development.