Key Facts About HEPATITIS B

Key facts

• Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease.
• The virus is transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person - not through casual contact.
• The hepatitis B virus is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV.

·         Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is a major global health problem and the most serious type of viral hepatitis. It can cause chronic liver disease and puts people at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.

Symptoms

Hepatitis B virus can cause an acute illness with symptoms that last several weeks, including yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), dark urine, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. People can take several months to a year to recover from the symptoms. HBV can also cause a chronic liver infection that can later develop into cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer.

Who is most at risk for chronic disease?

The likelihood that an HBV infection will become chronic depends upon the age at which a person becomes infected, with young children who become infected with HBV being the most likely to develop chronic infections. About 90% of infants infected during the first year of life develop chronic infections; 30% to 50% of children infected between one to four years of age develop chronic infections. About 25% of adults who become chronically infected during childhood die from HBV-related liver cancer or cirrhosis.
Hepatitis B virus is transmitted between people by contact with the blood or other body fluids (i.e. semen and vaginal fluid) of an infected person. Modes of transmission are the same for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but HBV is 50 to 100 times more infectious Unlike HIV, HBV can survive outside the body for at least 7 days. During that time, the virus can still cause infection if it enters the body of a person who is not infected.
Common modes of transmission in developing countries are:

• perinatal (from mother to baby at birth)
• early childhood infections (inapparent infection through close interpersonal contact with infected household contacts)
• unsafe injections practices
• blood transfusions
• sexual contact

·         HBV is not spread by contaminated food or water, and cannot be spread casually in the workplace.

·         There is no specific treatment for acute hepatitis B. Care is aimed at maintaining comfort and adequate nutritional balance, including replacement of fluids that are lost from vomiting and diarrhoea.

·         Liver cancer is almost always fatal, and often develops in people at an age when they are most productive and have family responsibilities. In developing countries, most people with liver cancer die within months of diagnosis. In higher income countries, surgery and chemotherapy can prolong life for up to a few years in some patients.