Abstract: Objective To learn the epidemic status of viral hepatitis in China to facilitate the development of control strategies.Methods To analyze the data from national notifiable infectious disease reporting system in 1990-2003.Results Currently,the incidence of viral hepatitis stays at the top among all the reported infectious diseases.Since 1990's,while the incidence of hepatitis A decreasing,the incidence of hepatitis B has been increasing from 21.93 per 100,000 in 1990 up to 53.32 per 100,000 in 2003 with the increase of proportion from 18.6% to 77.8% at the same time period.Conclusions High attention should be given to find out the reasons which contribute to the increasing trend of hepatitis B,and actions should be taken to con-trol the hepatitis.