On the Road to Hepatitis Elimination: How Nurse Practitioners Can Help Stop the Spread
Explore resources on hepatitis freely available to all nurse practitioners.
When patients first hear the word “hepatitis” — whether it’s in relation to their bodies or someone else’s — it’s understandable that they will immediately have more questions. While nurse practitioners (NPs) could begin by simply describing hepatitis as “inflammation of the liver,” that’s only the beginning of explaining and exploring this disease for the benefit of someone else. Are we talking about nonviral or viral hepatitis? If it’s the latter, is it hepatitis A, B, C, D or E? And if it is viral hepatitis, how can patients make sure they don’t spread the virus, and how can those who are not infected with hepatitis protect themselves?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has created four plans to address viral hepatitis. The latest plan, the “Viral Hepatitis National Strategic Plan for the United States: A Roadmap to Elimination 2021-2025,” has an even more ambitious aim — to completely eliminate “the public health threat of viral hepatitis in the United States by 2030.” The CDC’s plan includes five interlocking goals: prevent new viral hepatitis infections; improve viral hepatitis-related health outcomes of people with viral hepatitis; reduce viral hepatitis-related disparities and health inequities; improve viral hepatitis surveillance and data usage; and achieve integrated coordinated efforts that address the viral hepatitis epidemics among all partners and stakeholders.”
The efforts are focused on hepatitis A through C, and — as the last goal indicates — relies “on active participation by national, state, local and tribal health departments and organizations, health plans and health care providers, community- and faith-based organizations, scientists, researchers and the public working together with the federal government to achieve our collective goal to eliminate viral hepatitis in the United States.” NPs have long been working to eliminate viral hepatitis and now have even more resources and support to do so. These include a number of infographics and informative continuing education (CE) activities created by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP), available for free or at a reduced rate for AANP members.
Thinking Nationally and Acting Locally to Eliminate Viral Hepatitis
Individual states are working to help implement the CDC’s viral elimination plan, with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) launching their own Viral Hepatitis Elimination Plan, outlining “more than 100 actions aimed at preventing, diagnosing, treating and responding to viral hepatitis A, B and C.” Leading these efforts is Jessica Hancock-Allen, an NP and director of the infectious disease division at MDH, who said in a recent press release that “preventing and treating viral hepatitis is essential to protecting the long-term health of Minnesotans across the state.”
What can NPs do in their own states to help eliminate viral hepatitis? An article in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners regarding adult hepatitis vaccination shows that NPs can help by closing knowledge gaps regarding adult vaccination guidelines for hepatitis A and B. The article includes an infographic providing actionable solutions for NPs to improve hepatitis vaccination rates, like “increasing vaccination initiation and completion by providing patient vaccination reminders, scheduling the next vaccination visit preemptively and providing referral pathways.”
Hepatitis Resources to See…and Hear
AANP has several visual resources on hepatitis A and B available for free to download. These include a guide for NPs regarding adult vaccination, and another is a patient tool and resource detailing how hepatitis is transmitted; explaining who can get vaccinated; and which includes QR quotes patients may access to learn where they can get vaccinated. You may also download a resource dedicated just to viral hepatitis A, detailing how to prevent infection and more. On AANP’s educational outcomes website, NPs can find another visual resource on hepatitis A and B prevention by vaccine.
If you’d like to also get information about hepatitis on the go, AANP’s podcast, NP Pulse: The Voice of the Nurse Practitioner®, released an episode on hepatitis featuring experts Audrey Stevenson, PhD, MPH, MSN, FNP-BC, and Jessica Crimaldi, MSN, APRN, CNP, CMSRN. The NPs speak about which populations are most at risk for infection, the NP’s role in promoting vaccines, solutions for vaccines during outbreaks and much more.
Opportunities to learn even more about hepatitis — while earning valuable CE credit — are coming up at the 2026 AANP National Conference and available now in the AANP CE Center. Presented by Alice Saji, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, “Acute Hepatitis Work Up: When, Why and What” is a presentation that will take place at the 2026 AANP National Conference and offers 1 contact hour (CH) of CE credit. The activity will guide NPs through the acute hepatitis workup panel, “a valuable diagnostic tool if used in the appropriate clinical context.”
In the AANP CE Center, an activity entitled “The Alphabet Soup of Viral Hepatitis” offers 1.15 CH of CE credit and is available until Feb. 28, 2027. Presented by Sherilyn Brinkley, MSN, CRNP, the activity “will review the differences between viral hepatitis A, B, C and D including transmission, prevention tactics, diagnosis, clinical management and treatment options.”
Join AANP’s Infectious Disease Community
Want to learn more about hepatitis and other infectious diseases? If you’re an NP interested in effective strategies for disease containment; pandemic risk, impact and mitigation; or innovations in treatment-resistant coinfections, the Infectious Disease/HIV and Immunology-Rheumatology Community is a great fit for you — and at only $20 dollars annually. Come learn, share and help progress the development of theory and practice in infectious disease management and immunology-rheumatology.