Accidental needle sticks: Hepatitis B is a concern for health care workers and anyone else who comes in contact with human blood. Mother to child…pregnant women infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV) can pass the virus to their babies during childbirth.

Acute vs. chronic hepatitis B: Hepatitis B infection may be either short-lived (acute hepatitis or long lasting (chronic hepatitis.

Acute hepatitis B infection lasts less than six months. If the disease is acute, your immune system is usually able to clear the virus from your body, and you should recover completely within a few months. Most people who acquire hepatitis B as adults have an acute infection.

Chronic hepatitis B infection lasts six months or longer. When your immune system can’t fight off the virus, hepatitis B infection may become a lifelong, possibly leading to serious illnesses such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. Most infants infected with HBV at birth and many children infected between 1 and 5 years of age become chronically infected. Chronic infection may go undetected for decades until a person becomes seriously ill from liver disease.

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