Is hepatitis caused by bloodborne pathogen?!
Question:
Is hepatitis caused by bloodborne pathogen?
I'm referring to all hepatitis....also it hep also an airborne pathogen?
Answers:
Hepatitis A is caused by oral ingestion of a pathogen; most common in daycare settings in young children, or in travelers abroad eating contaminated food or food that has been washed in contaminated water or contaminated with ice from contaminated water.
Hep B & C are bloodborne pathogens.
Hep D lives on the Hep B virus, so is in that way blood borne; not all people with Hep B have Hep D, but all people with Hep D have Hep B.
Hep E is transmitted by eating or intaking contaminated food or water, and is very uncommon in the US.
No hepatitis viruses that I am aware of are airborne -- but I suppose, theoretically, that if someone with Hep B or C coughed blood on you, and you had an open cut where they coughed.... very, very, very theoretically, one could get Hep that way.