Overview
Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). It is a major global health problem. It can cause chronic infection and puts people at high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer.
A safe and effective vaccine that offers a 98-100% protection against hepatitis B is available. Preventing hepatitis B infection averts the development of complications including the development of chronic disease and liver cancer.Hepatitis B is an infection of your liver. It can cause scarring of the organ, liver failure, and cancer. It can be fatal if it isn’t treated.It’s spread when people come in contact with the blood, open sores, or body fluids of someone who has the hepatitis B virus.It's serious, but if you get the disease as an adult, it shouldn’t last a long time. Your body fights it off within a few months, and you’re immune for the rest of your life. That means you can't get it again. But if you get it at birth, it’ unlikely to go away.
Symptoms of Hepatitis B
Most people do not experience any symptoms when newly infected. However, some people have 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. A small subset of persons with acute hepatitis can develop acute liver failure, which can lead to death. Symptoms may not show up until 1 to 6 months after you catch the virus. You might not feel anything. About a third of the people who have this disease don’t. They only find out through a blood test. In some people, the hepatitis B virus can also cause a chronic liver infection that can later develop into cirrhosis (a scarring of the liver) or liver cancer.
Prevention
There is no specific treatment for acute hepatitis B. Therefore, care is aimed at maintaining comfort and adequate nutritional balance, including replacement of fluids lost from vomiting and diarrhoea. So prevention is the best way to fight against hepatitis B.The hepatitis B vaccine is the mainstay of hepatitis B prevention. WHO recommends that all infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine as soon as possible after birth, preferably within 24 hours. Routine infant immunization against hepatitis B has increased globally with an estimated coverage (third dose) of 84% in 2017. The low prevalence of chronic HBV infection in children under 5 years of age, estimated at 1.3% in 2015, can be attributed to the widespread use of hepatitis B vaccine.
The complete vaccine series induces protective antibody levels in more than 95% of infants, children and young adults. Protection lasts at least 20 years and is probably lifelong. Thus, WHO does not recommend booster vaccinations for persons who have completed the 3 dose vaccination schedule.All children and adolescents younger than 18 years and not previously vaccinated should receive the vaccine if they live in countries where there is low or intermediate endemicity.
what is hep b titer? - Negative: If your HBsAb test is negative, it can mean many different things—but, in general, it means you are not immune to the Hepatitis B virus.If your HBsAb is positive, it either means you have had the infection in the past or received the vaccine and are now immune. Post vaccination testing is not a routine practice except for infants born to mothers with HBV, immune compromised persons, healthcare workers, and sex partners of persons with chronic HBV. For the adult, a titer should be drawn 1 to 2 months after completing the vaccination series.
