Prevention:

People in high-risk groups such as health care workers can receive a hepatitis B immunization. Safer sex techniques decrease the risk of acquiring hepatitis through sexual contact. Intravenous drug users should seek addiction treatment or avoid sharing needles and any other injection-related paraphernalia.

You may contract hepatitis by simply handling an infected person's injection paraphernalia. Several forms of viral hepatitis are hundreds of times more transmissible via blood than HIV, and they can live for hours, even in dried blood.