Kissing and Risk of Hepatitis: Should You Be Worried?

It’s been said that when you kiss someone, you kiss everyone that person has kissed before. I’ll leave it to doctors to debate the truth of that claim, but a point worth noting is that sometimes kissing can be very intimate and, unfortunately, an opportunity to spread infection. Is viral hepatitis one of those infections?

A couple kissing in the daylight
Yuki Cheung / Getty Images

The Easy Answer

The chance of contracting hepatitis from kissing is virtually non-existent, as hepatitis B, C, and D can only be spread through blood and bodily fluids (including semen and vaginal secretions). Hepatitis A and E also don’t spread through kissing, as they are only transmitted through fecal-oral contact.

The fecal-oral route means that feces has somehow contaminated a food or water source. Fecal-oral transmission due to contaminated water is more common in developing countries. Bottom line, failure to wash your hands after using the restroom can result in fecal-oral transmission.

The Not-So-Easy Answer

Since it’s also been said that nothing in life is easy, maybe this question isn’t as simple as we’d like it to be. The complexity comes from what is theoretically possible versus what is realistically probable. Realistically you’re not going to get viral hepatitis from kissing. However, it is theoretically possible. Since any type of direct contact with infected blood is a possible way to spread some of these viruses, there are kissing scenarios where the risk of exposure increases. I’ll let your imagination wonder but think about cold sores, cuts, and prolonged kissing.

The Bottom Line

It all comes down to the level of risk you’re willing to accept. Most of us regularly accept health risks of all kinds and levels in our lives. For example, we may drive a car, play contact sports, eat fast food, or smoke cigarettes. Obviously, most types of kissing are completely harmless and won’t allow any opportunity to spread the hepatitis viruses. For most people, the rare kissing scenarios that may allow some theoretical exposure to one of the hepatitis viruses will be risks worth taking.

A Closer Look at Hepatitis Transmission

Here’s a more detailed look at how different types of hepatitis are transmitted:

  • Hepatitis A is transmitted by contaminated food and water and is thus fecal-oral.
  • Hepatitis B is transmitted by blood, needles, and sex. Hepatitis B can also be passed along during delivery from a mother to her newborn.
  • Hepatitis C is transmitted by needles and blood.
  • Hepatitis E is transmitted by means of contaminated water. Like hepatitis A, hepatitis E is fecal-oral.

Like B and C, type D transmits to a person who already has hepatitis B and spreads by blood, needles, and sex. Hepatitis D can be transmitted during delivery from a mother to her newborn, but this is rare.

5 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. Limeres Posse J, Diz Dios P, Scully C. Infection transmission by saliva and the paradoxical protective role of saliva. In: Limeres Posse J, Diz Dios P, Scully C, eds. Saliva Protection and Transmissible Diseases. Academic Press; 2017:1-18. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-813681-2.00001-9

  2. Limeres Posse J, Diz Dios P, Scully C. Viral diseases transmissible by kissing. In: Limeres Posse J, Diz Dios P, Scully C, eds. Saliva Protection and Transmissible Diseases. Academic Press; 2017:53–92. doi:0.1016/B978-0-12-813681-2.00004-4

  3. Arslan M, Xu B, Gamal El-Din M. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via fecal-oral and aerosols-borne routes: environmental dynamics and implications for wastewater management in underprivileged societiesSci Total Environ. 2020;743:140709. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140709

  4. World Health Organization. What is hepatitis?

  5. World Health Organization. Hepatitis D.

By Charles Daniel
 Charles Daniel, MPH, CHES is an infectious disease epidemiologist, specializing in hepatitis.