What is hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. Most adults who get hepatitis B have it for a short time and then get better. This is called acute hepatitis B.
You can have hepatitis B and not know it. You may not have symptoms. If you do, they can make you feel like you have the flu. But as long as you have the virus, you can spread it to others.
Sometimes the virus does not go away. This is called chronic hepatitis B. Over time, it can damage your liver. Babies and young children infected with the virus are more likely to get chronic hepatitis B.
What causes hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is spread through contact with the blood and body fluids of an infected person. Hepatitis B is one of the most easily spread (contagious) forms of viral hepatitis, which includes hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. However, hepatitis has many other causes, including some medications, long-term alcohol use, fatty deposits in the liver, and exposure to certain industrial chemicals.
How HBV is spread?
HBV is spread when blood, semen, or vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood) from an infected person enter another person's body, usually in one of the following ways:
• Sexual contact:The hepatitis B virus can enter the body through a break in the lining of the rectum, vagina, urethra, or mouth. Sexual contact is the most important risk factor for the spread of HBV in North America.
• Sharing needles: People who share needles and other equipment (such as cotton, spoons, and water) used for injecting illegal drugs may inject HBV-infected blood into their veins.
• Work-related exposure: People who handle blood or instruments used to draw blood may become infected with the virus. Health care workers are at risk of becoming infected with the virus if they are accidentally stuck with a used needle or other sharp instrument infected with an infected person's blood, or if blood splashes onto an exposed surface, such as the eyes, mouth, or a cut in the skin.
• Childbirth. A newborn baby can get the virus from his or her mother during delivery when the baby comes in contact with the mother's body fluids in the birth canal (perinatal transmission) . However, breast-feeding does not transmit the virus from a woman with HBV to her child.
• Body piercing and tattoos. HBV can be spread when needles used for body piercing or tattooing is not properly cleaned (sterilized) and HBV-infected blood enters a person's skin.
• Toiletries:Grooming items such as razors and toothbrushes can spread HBV if they carry blood from a person who is infected with the virus.
In the past, blood transfusions were a common means of spreading HBV. Today, all donated blood in the United States is screened for the virus, so it is extremely unlikely that you could become infected with the virus from a blood transfusion.
Contagious and incubation periods
Symptoms appear an average of 60 to 90 days (although they can appear 45 to 180 days) after you have contact with the hepatitis B virus (incubation period). Blood, semen, and vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood), whether fresh or dried, are highly contagious (HBV can be easily spread) during this period and for several weeks after the onset of symptoms.
• Blood contains the highest quantities of the hepatitis B virus.
• Blood and other body fluids that contain the virus can remain contagious for at least a
week and possibly much longer, even if they are dried.
If you have a short-term HBV (acute) infection, you usually cannot spread the virus after antibodies against the surface antigen of HBV appear. This generally takes several weeks. If you have a long-term (chronic) HBV infection, you are able to spread the virus as long as the condition lasts.
A mother who has the virus can pass it to her baby during delivery. If you are pregnant and think you may have been exposed to hepatitis B, get tested. If you have the virus, your baby can get shots to help prevent the virus.
You cannot get hepatitis B from casual contact such as hugging, kissing, sneezing, coughing, or sharing food or drinks.
What are the symptoms?
Less than half of those with short-term (acute) hepatitis B infections have symptoms. Symptoms include:
• Jaundice (the skin and whites of the eyes appear yellow). Although jaundice is the defining sign of hepatitis B, it does not occur in most cases. Jaundice usually appears after other symptoms have started to go away.
• Extreme tiredness (fatigue).
• Mild fever.
• Headache.
• Loss of appetite.
• Nausea.
• Vomiting.
• Constant discomfort on the right side of the abdomen under the rib cage, where the liver is located. In most people, the discomfort is made worse when their bodies are jarred or if they overwork themselves.
• Diarrhea or constipation.
• Muscle aches.
• Joint pain.
• Skin rash.
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