Hepatitis B vaccine : what you need to know

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Description:
  Hepatitis B is a serious infection that affects the liver. It is caused by the hepatitis B virus.
  
  • In 2009, about 38,000 people became infected with
  
  hepatitis B.
  
  • Each year about 2,000 to 4,000 people die in the United
  
  States from cirrhosis or liver cancer caused by hepatitis B.
  
  Hepatitis B can cause:
  
  Acute (short-term) illness. This can lead to:
  
  • loss of appetite • diarrhea and vomiting
  
  • tiredness • jaundice (yellow skin or eyes) • pain in muscles, joints, and stomach
  
  Acute illness, with symptoms, is more common among adults. Children who become infected usually do not have symptoms.
  
  Chronic (long-term) infection. Some people go on to develop chronic hepatitis B infection. Most of them do not have symptoms, but the infection is still very serious, and can lead to:
  
  • liver damage (cirrhosis) • liver cancer • death
  
  Chronic infection is more common among infants and children than among adults. People who are chronically infected can spread hepatitis B virus to others, even if they don’t look or feel sick. Up to 1.4 million people in the United States may have chronic hepatitis B infection.
  
  Hepatitis B virus is easily spread through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person. People can also be infected from contact with a contaminated object, where the virus can live for up to 7 days.
  
  • A baby whose mother is infected can be infected at birth;
  
  • Children, adolescents, and adults can become infected
  
  by:
  
  - contact with blood and body fluids through breaks in
  
  the skin such as bites, cuts, or sores;
  
  - contact with objects that have blood or body fluids on
  
  them such as toothbrushes, razors, or monitoring and
  
  treatment devices for diabetes;
  
  - having unprotected sex with an infected person;
  
  - sharing needles when injecting drugs;
  
  - being stuck with a used needle.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Hepatitis B /prevention & Control Hepatitis B Vaccines
• Series:
  Vaccine Information Statement
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Patient Education Handout
• Pages in Document:
  2 unnumbered pages
• Collection(s):
  Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6092799b6bfb5522e9137b0803e8a4df1e46692136da47fc18148ebb6115257a7136a801a8f8d8e8636f58357b53d9ed6552a15b1ad44cf28d8774dca871902f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/28031/cdc_28031_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 334.07 KB ]