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1. 3.9 million Americans have been exposed to Hepatitis C and 2.7 million harbor chronic infection with hepatitis C. Hepatitis C, or HCV, causes up to 10,000 deaths annually from complications of cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer and is the leading cause of liver transplants.

2. Although up to 85 percent of persons infected with HCV develop chronic liver disease, more than half will have no symptoms. Symptoms can be delayed for up to 30 years.

3. There are several FDA-approved therapies for chronic hepatitis C: interferon alfa-2b, interferon alfa-2a, interferon alfacon-1, peginterferon alfa-2b, peginterferon alfa-2a, and each, except for interferon alfacon-1, in combination with ribavirin.

4. Death from cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma occurs in 15 to 25 percent of persons chronically infected with hepatitis B, or HBV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

5. Fifty percent of adults with acute HBV infection never show symptoms. Most adults, up to 95 percent, will develop antibodies and clear the infection. Those who don't clear the infection develop chronic infection and can infect others for the rest of their lives.

6. As many as 1.25 million Americans have chronic HBV infection.

7. HBV is highly contagious. Experts estimate it is 100 times easier to become infected from a single exposure than from a single exposure to HIV.

8. HBV is not spread through food, water, or casual contact. The greatest risk of infection is through sexual contact. Kissing is not considered a risk, although the virus is found in saliva.

9. Three drugs, interferon alfa-2b, lamivudine, and adefovir dipivoxil, have been FDA-approved as an effective therapy for HBV.

10. The most common way hepatitis A, or HAV, is transmitted is through fecal-oral contact, either by person-to-person transmission from household contact with contaminated objects and materials or through contaminated food or water. For example, you can get HAV by changing the diaper of a baby who is infected with the virus and not cleaning up properly (disinfecting changing surfaces and washing your hands) or by drinking contaminated water while traveling. Fruits and vegetables and other foodstuffs that are eaten raw can transmit the virus if they were processed with contaminated water. Green onions and shellfish may also be contaminated in this way. HAV is less common in the U.S. than in developing countries such as some parts of Mexico, Africa, Southeast Asia and Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

11. HAV, which reproduces in the liver and is shed in the feces, causes an infection that produces complete immunity so that a person never becomes infected again or has symptoms. Also, a person is infectious for a short period of time, so transmission conditions have to be just right for an outbreak to occur.