the other day someone mentioned that a friend of theirs was infected with a form of hepatitis from eating some type of raw veggie. Is this possible?

As far as I know, if someone with Hepatitis A prepared the food, then yes, it is possible. I don't believe that any certain vegetable would cause it, though.

Hepatitis A is normally passed from person to person by eating/drinking contaminated food/water. Heating kills it.

This is more a problem of food and personal and social hygiene and not raw foods per se, because everyone eats raw foods (even it's only a salad or an apple) or drinks unheated liquids (water). So a chef/waiter who has Hepatitis A is likely to infect people regardless if he cooks the food or not. I.e. I don't think the poor veggie is to blame for the infection.

But this is a very good point nevertheless. Food safety is important, and personally I wouldn't want to eat *any* raw foods in a lot of places on this planet. In developed countries though it's not very likely that you will get infections like that. It's very uncommon.

Nevertheless, washing your food thoroughly is always a good idea. :)

A lot of the problems with bacteria comes from imported produce. At least in this country, the produce coming from Mexico, which doesn't always practice clean farming/harvesting etc. There was a case recently where imported green onions were found to be infected with something, and a patron at a restaurant ate it and got very sick.

A good immunity is key. Some people with solid immunities are protected from all sorts of viruses and bacteria that would otherwise infect anyone.