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September 2019 | HEPATITIS B - HBV

What is it?

The word hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. Basically, you can distinguish between acute and chronic infections. Half of all people don’t notice the acute ones. The other half get an inflamed liver and a fever. Ten percent of all cases develop chronic hepatitis B. This disease also remains frequently unnoticed until the rather sudden diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, liver cell cancer or chronic inflammation of the liver.

Who has it?

One of the highest rates of viral infection worldwide, around 350 million people carry the virus in their blood.

What to do?

In Germany, the hepatitis B vaccination is a standard one. The acute version is normally not treated and goes away by itself. There are therapies to treat the chronic variation. These are not always effective, so you may end up with chronic hepatitis B for life.

What else do I not want to know?

Only people with hepatitis B can contract hepatitis D which could end up making the illness much worse. Hepatitis D is seldomly transmitted through sex.