Features	Hepatitis A	Hepatitis B	Hepatitis C	Hepatitis D	Hepatitis E
Family	Picornavirus	Hepadenavirus	Flavivirus	Satellite	Calcivirus
Genome	RNA	DNA	RNA	RNA	RNA
Incubation period	15 - 40 days	50 - 180 days	1 - 5 months	21- 180 days	2 - 9 weeks
Usual type of onset	Acute	Insidious	Insidious	Acute	Acute
Viremia	transient	prologed	prolonged	prolonged	transient?
Mode of transmission
Oral (fecal)	Usual	No	No	No	Usual
Parenteral	Rare	Usual	Usual	Usual	No
Other	Foodborne or waterborne	Intimate contact,perinatal, sexual	Intimate contact	Intimate contact	Waterborne transmission in developing countries
Carrier	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Chronic hepatitis	Not reported	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not reported
Estimated mortality	0.1% - 0.2%	0.5% - 2.0% (may be higher in complicated cases)	1% - 2% (may be higher in complicated cases)	2% - 20%	20% in pregnant women; 1% - 2% in general population
Hepatocellular carci.	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Tests	HAV antibody IgM	HBs antigen	HCV IgM	Hepatitis D antigen	Hepatitis E IgM
	HAV antibody total	HBs antibody	HCV IgG	Hepatitis D IgM
		HBe antigen (rDNA)	RIBA or (LIA) + strip	Hepatitis D total
		HBe antibody (rDNA)	HCV-RNA Quantitative by branched DNA & PCR
		HBc antibody Total (rAg)	HCV Genotype by PCR
		HBc antibody IgM (rDNA)	HCV in liver biopsy by ISH
		HBV - DNA by PCR	HCV Positive & Negative Strands in Mononuclear Cells.
		HBV in liver biopsy by ISH