Hepatitis A is highly contagious and continues to be one of the most frequently reported vaccine-preventable diseases. Historically, it was called infectious hepatitis. Today, the disease is known as hepatitis A, named after the virus that causes it. Each year, approximately 1.5 million people worldwide and between 1000 and 3000 people in Canada are infected with hepatitis A. Although hepatitis A is generally benign and does not result in chronic hepatitis, infection with hepatitis A virus remains an important cause of morbidity and occasional fulminating hepatitis and death.

The incidence of hepatitis A varies throughout the world. Areas where hepatitis A is common or "endemic" are shown in the map below.* In unprotected travelers, hepatitis A occurs 10 to 100 times more frequently than typhoid fever and 1000 times more often than cholera. Outbreaks of hepatitis A may also occur in areas of low incidence, including Canada.

Worldwide prevalence of hepatitis A infection, 2005

*Adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC Yellow Book) 2005-2006.