Hepatitis B (HBV)
Hepatitis B is a viral infection of the liver. It is mostly a disease of
adolescents and adults, not children. It is usually spread by sexual
contact or needle sharing among IV drug abusers. However, about 40% of
adult cases have no such "risk factor" and therefore other forms of
"close contact" are felt to spread it as well. All blood used
for transfusion in this country has been screened for Hepatitis B for more than
a decade now. Newborns can catch Hepatitis B from their mothers during
either childbirth or breastfeeding.
In it's initial phases, Hepatitis B causes jaundice, abdominal pain, fever,
and vomiting. In most cases it resolves fully within several weeks without
permanent damage. Sometimes it can quickly progress to complete liver
failure, however, which can be fatal without a liver transplant. Other
times a person may never fully recover and instead become a "chronic
carrier" who can continue to both spread the disease and have low-grade
liver inflammation (Chronic Active Hepatitis, CAH) for years until they slowly
reach the point of liver failure.
CAH from Hepatitis B is the most common cause of adult liver failure in the
U.S. today. The few children who contract Hepatitis B are less likely than
adults to develop acute liver failure, or indeed to have symptoms at all -
children get this illness less often, and are better at fighting it when they do
than adults are. However, they are actually MORE likely to become chronic
carriers and develop CAH, they can do so "silently", and this will
come back to "haunt" them many years later as adults.
We've had a Hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) for over twenty years. The original
vaccine was made from blood products, and could theoretically have transmitted
certain diseases as a result. However since the mid-1980’s HBV has been
made using "recombinant DNA" technology rather than blood, and thus
there is no longer any infectious risk at all. Other risks and side
effects from HBV are very low. A few patients will have redness and
swelling at the injection site. Another minor risk of HBV is an allergic
reaction, which theoretically can happen with any medication.
For more information, please visit Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website at:
Hepatitis B (HBV): http://www.immunize.org/vis/hepb01.pdf |
