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Routine Care & Wellness

Hepatitis B

A highly contagious virus that infects the liver causes Hepatitis B. It affects all age groups and can lead to liver disease, liver cancer, and death in many of those afflicted. The virus is found in the blood and body fluids of infected people. It can be spread through sexual contact, the sharing of needles or razors, from mother to infant during birth and by living in a household with chronically infected person. The hepatitis B virus is a hardy virus that can live outside the body for several days.

Prevention

Safe, effective hepatitis B vaccines have been available for over a decade. The vaccines are used to protect everyone from newborn babies to older adults. The 3-shot series, given over a 6-month period, protects those at risk and contributes to the elimination of this silent, highly infectious killer.

Symptoms

Hepatitis B is a "silent disease" that often infects a person without making them feel sick. If you do get sick from hepatitis B, the symptoms may be like the "flu." You lose your appetite, feel extremely tired, have stomach cramps, and vomit. If you are more seriously ill, your skin and eyes may turn yellow with jaundice and you may need hospitalization.

Vaccine Safety

Hepatitis B vaccine is safe and effective. You cannot get hepatitis B from the vaccine. The most common side effect of the vaccine is soreness at the injection site. As with any medicine, there are very small risks those serious problems, even death, could occur after getting a vaccine. However, the risks from the disease are much greater than the risks from the vaccine.

Who should get hepatitis B vaccine?

Sexually active people who have multiple partners, who have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease, or who are monogamous but whose partners are at risk for hepatitis B virus infection.
People whose jobs potentially expose them to human blood or body fluids. This includes most health care and some public safety workers.
People living with others who are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus.
Non-immunized adolescents.
Children of immigrants, or parents and other household members of adopted children who have chronic HBV infection.
Alaska Natives.
People who inject drugs.
International travelers who visit or live in countries where hepatitis B is common and will reside in those countries for more than 6 months.

FACTS ABOUT HEPATITIS B

Hepatitis B can be prevented with a safe and effective vaccine.
Even if a person infected with HBV does not feel sick, he or she can still infect others.
Hepatitis B can be fatal.
Nearly one-third of those who become infected with HBV does not know how they got the disease.
Some people who contract HBV carry it for a long time and may continue to infect others without knowing it.
You cannot get hepatitis B from the hepatitis B vaccine.
Hepatitis B kills 4,000 - 5,000 Americans every year. Death from cirrhosis or liver cancer often occurs after infection has been present for a long time.
HBV is found in blood and other body fluids such as semen and vaginal secretions and is very easy to catch. It is 100 times more infectious than the virus that causes AIDS.
HBV is sexually transmitted. Hepatitis B is the only sexually transmitted disease for that there is a vaccine that offers protection.
Infants born to women with HBV infection have a very high chance of getting hepatitis B from their mothers.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected an estimated 200,000 Americans in 1996. Thousands of the victims are adolescents and young adults.

These facts about Hepatitis B are courtesy of the
National Coalition of Adult Immunization

to reach their organization, please click here for more information.