How common is viral hepatitis?

Hep B is common.: Per who: more than 2 billion people alive today have been infected with HBV at some time. Of these, about 350 million remain infected chronically (carriers).Three quarters of the world’s population live in areas where there are high levels of infection. Globally, every year there are over 4 million acute clinical cases of HBV and about 1 million people a year die from complications...

Not uncommon: In the us, there are between 3.5 million to 5.3 million americans have chronic viral hepatitis. There are some high risk groups - one out of every 7 african american men in their 40s is living with chronic hepatitis c, and approximately 1 in 12 asian americans is living with chronic hepatitis b. In the us, viral hepatitis causes 12, 000 to 15, 000 deaths annually from cancer and liver failure.