In order to be in the position to propose adequate measures to prevent and control the disease, it is pivotal to understand the epidemiology of viral hepatitides. Disease control measures – which primarily depend on the most common routes of transmission of the disease and the presence of certain subgroups of the population among patients – can be tailored in accordance with the patients’ age (such as targeting infants, children, adolescents) or may be targeted at people at higher risk. The latter are, for example, intravenous drug and opiate users. Coversely, measures can be targeted at the entire population. The most important thing to consider is certainly the specificity of a particular population when proposing measures to control and prevent disease, because the epidemiological situation depends on the justification of the introduction of a particular vaccine or screening procedure, as well as the selection of the population to be vaccinated. It is also important to select the ideal age for implementation of vaccination or select the population that can benefit the most from the early detection and treatment program itself and potential vaccination programme. In short, viral hepatitis represents a systemic disease that is predominantly affects the liver. In modern times, viral hepatitis is divided primarily according to its cause, namely viral hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. In addition, the condition can be divided according to their duration into acute hepatitis or chronic hepatitis. Despite the fact that the clinical picture of all these hepatitis is rather similar, the public health problem of utmost significance is the tendency of certain hepatitis viruses to cause chronic diseases that can have severe consequences. For example, viral hepatitis B and viral hepatitis C represent an extremely large public health problem in the whole world, even in Croatia. Every day there is basically an increasing number of patients who are infected with these forms of hepatitis virus. Moreover, it is important to note that over a million people die from the virus worldwide each year. In conclusion, it should be said that viral hepatitis can have severe consequences on human organism and that today they represent one of the biggest threats to global health.