Hepatitis can be avoided. You should always practice safe sex and never share objects such as needles, razors, toothbrushes, nail files, and clippers. When getting a manicure, tattoo, or body piercing, make sure sterile instruments are used. People who are exposed to blood in their work, such as health care workers, laboratory technicians, dentists, surgeons, nurses, emergency service workers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, military personnel, or those who live with an infected individual, should be vaccinated against hepatitis B.
You should also consider being vaccinated for hepatitis A if you work at a daycare center, come into close contact with someone who is infected, travel to geographic areas that have poor sanitation, or live in an area where there has been a recent outbreak of hepatitis A.
Having one form of hepatitis does not protect someone from getting other forms. People with hepatitis C who also contract hepatitis A are at high risk for fulminant hepatitis, which is a deadly and rapidly progressive form of the disease. Therefore, medical experts strongly recommend that hepatitis C patients also get vaccinated against hepatitis A and B.
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