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Hepatitis B Overview

Hepatitis is a general term that means inflammation of the liver. The liver can become inflamed as a result of infection, a disorder of the immune system, or exposure to alcohol, certain medications, toxins, or poisons.

Hepatitis B is caused by infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). This infection has 2 phases: acute and chronic.

Acute (new, short-term) hepatitis B occurs shortly after exposure to the virus. A small number of people develop a very severe, life-threatening form of acute hepatitis called fulminant hepatitis.
Chronic (ongoing, long-term) hepatitis B is an infection with HBV that lasts longer than 6 months. Once the infection becomes chronic, it may never go away completely.

About 90-95% of people who are infected are able to fight off the virus so their infection never becomes chronic. Only about 5-10 percent of adults infected with HBV go on to develop chronic infection.
HBV infection is one of the most important causes of infectious hepatitis.
People with chronic HBV infection are called chronic carriers. About two-thirds of these people do not themselves get sick or die of the virus, but they can transmit it to other people. The remaining one third develop chronic hepatitis B, a disease of the liver that can be very serious.

The liver is an essential organ that the body needs to stay alive. Its most important functions are filtering many drugs and toxins out of the blood, storing energy for later use, helping with the absorption of certain nutrients from food, and producing substances that fight infections and control bleeding.

The liver has an incredible ability to heal itself, but it can only heal itself if nothing is damaging it.

Liver damage in chronic hepatitis B, if not stopped, continues until the liver becomes hardened and scarlike. This is called cirrhosis, a condition traditionally associated with alcoholism. When this happens, the liver can no longer carry out its normal functions, a condition called liver failure. The only treatment for liver failure is liver transplant.

Chronic hepatitis B also can lead to a type of liver cancer known as hepatocellular carcinoma.

Any of these conditions can be fatal. About 15-25 percent of people with chronic hepatitis B die of liver disease.

Hepatitis B is the most common serious liver infection in the world. Worldwide, about 350 million people are chronic carriers of HBV, of whom, more than 250,000 die from liver-related disease each year.
In the United States, hepatitis B is largely a disease of young adults aged 20-50 years. About 1.25 million people are chronic carriers, and the disease causes about 5000 deaths each year.

The good news is that infection with HBV is almost always preventable. You can protect yourself and your loved ones from hepatitis B.