Notice to Readers: Hepatitis Awareness Month --- May 2005

May is Hepatitis Awareness Month. In 2003, in the United States, an estimated 61,000 new infections occurred with hepatitis A virus, 73,000 with hepatitis B virus, and 30,000 with hepatitis C virus (1). Effective interventions, such as hepatitis A and hepatitis B immunization (2,3) and counseling and testing for hepatitis C (4), can help prevent and control viral hepatitis and protect personal and community health. Additional information regarding Hepatitis Awareness Month, activities associated with this month, prevention and control of viral hepatitis, and free educational materials is available at http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis.

References

1. CDC. Disease burden from hepatitis A, B, and C in the United States. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2004. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/resource/pdfs/disease_burden2004.pdf.
2. CDC. Prevention of hepatitis A through active or passive immunization: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). MMWR 1999;48(No. RR-12).
3. CDC. Hepatitis B virus: a comprehensive strategy for eliminating transmission in the United States through universal childhood vaccination: recommendations of the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP). MMWR 1991;40(No. RR-13).
4. CDC. Recommendations for prevention and control of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and HCV-related chronic disease. MMWR 1998;47(No. RR-19).

Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of the date of publication.

Disclaimer   All MMWR HTML versions of articles are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the electronic PDF version and/or the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.

**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.

Date last reviewed: 5/12/2005