Hepatitis B (HBV)
Approximately 780,000 people lose their lives each year in the U.S. to hepatitis B infections; there are also an estimated 650,000 of deaths from cirrhosis and 130,000 deaths from acute infections. Acute HBV affects adults for a short period of time and, in general, they recover within a year.
About 90 percent of healthy adults will recover naturally in the first year. Chronic HBV is a long-term infection of the liver. Globally, 240 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B.
HBV is spread through contact with blood or bodily fluids of the infected person. The virus for hepatitis B can live outside of the body for seven days -- so good hygiene is essential. There is a high risk of death from cirrhosis or liver cancer.
The good news is there is hope with HBV. There is a vaccine available that is 95 percent effective against the condition. It is generally a three-shot series given to high-risk groups like people exposed to blood products( i.e. health workers), those who frequently require blood products, dialysis patients, people interned in prisons, organ transplant recipients, IV drug users, people who have multiple sex partners, household or sexual contact with someone with HBV infection.
The virus has an incubation period between 30 to 180 days and can be detected within 30 to 60 days after the infection and could lead to chronic HBV. The mode of transmission involves men who have sex with other men; vaginal; seminal; saliva, and menstrual fluid exchanges, having sex without a condom; sharing needles while intravenously injecting drugs; improperly sanitized tattoo equipment and sharing personal items like toothbrushes and razors with infected person.
The risk factors depend on the age of the patient’s infection: 80 to 90 percent of infected infants in the first year of life develop chronic infections. An estimated 30 to 50 percent of chronically infected kids go on to have cirrhosis and liver cancer. And 20 to 30 percent of adults who are chronically infected develop cirrhosis and or liver cancer.