Hepatitis B

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 put people at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Worldwide, an estimated two billion people have been infected with hepatitis B.

How Is It Transmitted?

• Perinatal (from mother to baby at birth).
• Unsafe injection practices.
• Unsafe blood transfusions.
• Unprotected sexual contact.

What Is the Incubation Period?

The incubation period of the hepatitis B virus is 90 days on average, but can range from 30 to 180 days. The virus may be detected 30 to 60 days after infection and persists for variable periods of time.

What Are the Symptoms?

Hepatitis B triggers severe signs, lasting for several weeks, including:

• Yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice) and dark urine.
• Fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Chronic infection of hepatitis B may develop into liver failure or liver cancer.

People with acute hepatitis B can take several months to a year to recover.

How Is It Treated?

Some people with chronic hepatitis B can be treated with drugs that help ease pain and eliminate symptoms, including interferon and antiviral agents.

How Can It Be Prevented?

The hepatitis B vaccine is the mainstay of hepatitis B prevention. It has been available since 1982, and it is 95% effective in preventing infection and its chronic consequences.

The vaccine can be given in three or four separate doses, as part of existing routine immunization schedules. In areas where mother-to-infant spread of the hepatitis B virus is common, the first dose of vaccine should be given immediately after birth (i.e. within 24 hours).

Who should be vaccinated: all children and adolescents younger than 18 years old and not previously vaccinated should receive the vaccine. People in high risk groups should also be vaccinated, including:

• Partners and household contacts of infected people.
• People who frequently require blood or blood products.
• Recipients of solid organ transplantation.
• People at occupational risk of hepatitis B virus infection, including health-care workers.
• Travelers to countries with high rates of hepatitis B.

Other measures:

• It is important for anyone to avoid the tools possibly contaminated, especially those penetrating the skin, such as syringes, shaving blades and tooth brushes.
• Avoiding unlawful, high-risk sexual behavior. If one spouse is suffering from the disease for some reason or another, condoms should be used to prevent transmission to the other spouse.