Viral Hepatitis B and C Need to be Approached as A Major Public Health Problem in Latin America

Hepatitis B and C viruses, although in their genomic structure are very different, share several characteristics. Both can induce acute hepatitis, chronic hepatitis and progression to cirrhosis having oncogenic capacity related to the development of hepatocellular cancer, both are associated with systemic autoimmune manifestations and, both B virus (genome DNA) and C virus (genome RNA) have the ability to avoid immune response of the infected host [1,2].