World Hepatitis Day

July 28th is World Hepatitis Day, an opportunity to bring awareness to a disease that affects millions of people worldwide.

Hi, I’m Dr. Griffin Rodgers, director of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases at NIH.

Your liver has many important functions including digesting your food and fighting infections. Viral hepatitis is an infection that causes liver inflammation and damage. Researchers have discovered several types including A, B, and C, but millions of Americans living with viral hepatitis don’t know they have it.

The good news is we have vaccines to prevent hepatitis A and B; and medicines can now cure most cases of hepatitis C. You can find out if you are at risk with a 5-minute test on the CDC.gov website; search “Hepatitis Risk Assessment.”

For more information, follow us on Twitter @NIDDKgov. This is Dr. Griffin Rodgers with the NIH.