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Hepatitis B follows a similar mode of transmission as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the agent responsible for AIDS. Both are transmitted through exposure to infected blood or blood products, sexual contact and from mothers to infants primarily at birth.

However, hepatitis B appears to be far more infectious than HIV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 30 to 40 percent of acute HBV infections in the U.S. occur in individuals with no known risk factors. In comparison, only 4 percent of AIDS cases have occurred in individuals with no known risk factors.

Hepatitis B is threatening for a variety of other reasons. In addition to the ways in which HIV is spread, hepatitis B appears to be spread by casual contact. It can be acquired by close contact within families, or from person to person through contact with open skin lesions. The virus may possibly be spread by exposure of mucous membranes to saliva, but you cannot get it from food or water, sneezing or coughing, breastfeeding, handshakes, hugs or casual contact.

Another important fact is that hepatitis B can remain stable outside the body for days or weeks, even when dry.

Hepatitis B is a liver disease caused by infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Hepatitis B is one of the most common forms of viral hepatitis, which includes hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. But hepatitis has many other causes, including some medicines, long-term alcohol use, fatty deposits in the liver, and exposure to certain industrial chemicals.
How HBV is spread

HBV is spread when blood, semen, or vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood) from an infected person enter another person’s body, usually in one of the following ways.

Causes Of Hepatitis B:

1.Toiletries:Grooming items such as razors and toothbrushes can spread HBV if they carry blood from a person who is infected with the virus.

2.Body piercings and Tattoos:HBV may be spread when needles used for body piercing or tattooing are not properly cleaned (sterilized) and HBV-infected blood enters a person’s skin.

3.Childbirth:A newborn baby can get the virus from his or her mother during delivery when the baby comes in contact with the mother’s body fluids in the birth canal (perinatal transmission). But breast-feeding does not transmit the virus from a woman with HBV to her child.

4.Work Related Exposure:People who handle blood or instruments used to draw blood may become infected with the virus. Health care workers are at risk of becoming infected with the virus if they are accidentally stuck with a used needle or other sharp instrument contaminated with an infected person’s blood. Infection also can occur if blood splashes onto an exposed surface, such as the eyes, mouth, or a cut in the skin.

5.Sharing Needles: People who share needles and other equipment (such as cotton, spoons, and water) used for injecting illegal drugs may inject HBV-infected blood into their veins.

6.Sexual contact:The hepatitis B virus can enter the body through a break in the lining of the rectum, vagina, urethra, or mouth. Sexual contact is the most important risk factor for the spread of HBV in North America.

In the past, blood transfusions were a common means of spreading HBV. Organ transplants could also spread the disease. Today, all donated blood and organs in the United States are screened for the virus, so it is extremely unlikely that you could become infected with the virus from a blood transfusion or organ transplant.
Contagious and incubation periods

Symptoms appear an average of 60 to 90 days (although they can appear 45 to 180 days) after you have contact with the hepatitis B virus (incubation period). Blood, semen, and vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood), whether fresh or dried, are highly contagious (HBV can be easily spread) during this period and for several weeks after the onset of symptoms.

1.Blood and other body fluids that contain the virus can remain contagious for at least a week and possibly much longer, even if they are dried.
2.Blood contains the highest quantities of the hepatitis B virus.

If you have a short-term HBV (acute) infection, you usually cannot spread the virus after antibodies against the surface antigen of HBV appear. This generally takes several weeks. If you have a long-term (chronic) HBV infection, you are able to spread the virus as long as you have an active infection.

Hepatitis B virus is easily spread by direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person. For example, hepatitis B can be transmitted from an infected mother to her baby at birth, through unprotected sex with an infected person, by sharing equipment for injecting street drugs, and by occupational contact with blood in a health-care setting. Hepatitis B is

not spread through food or water or by casual contact.

People can have hepatitis B (and spread the disease) without knowing it. Sometimes, people who are infected with hepatitis B virus never recover fully from the infection. They carry the virus and can infect others for the rest of their lives. The virus lives in the liver and is present in the blood and certain body fluids. Spread occurs through contact with virus-containing blood and body fluids, such as sharing of injection drug equipment, sexual contact (homosexual and heterosexual), during childbirth, household contact with a person who has hepatitis B, and sharing of personal hygiene items (such as nail clippers, razors, toothbrushes).

The HBV itself does not directly cause damage to the liver. Rather, the body’s immune (protective) response to the virus (a foreign material) paradoxically causes the damage. Thus, in an HBV infection, the body’s immune response to the virus is responsible for both the elimination of the HBV from the body and recovery from the infection. Yet, at the same time, the injury to the liver cells is caused by that same immune response to the HBV in the liver cells. An acute HBV infection can lead to recovery (the usual outcome), to acute liver failure (rarely), and sometimes to chronic infection. The chronic infection can result in a healthy carrier state (in which the affected person harbors the virus but remains healthy) or progress to cirrhosis (sever scarring, or fibrosis, of the liver) and its complications, including liver cancer.

Hepatitis can interfere with normal liver functions. Symptoms of hepatitis B, one of several viruses that can cause hepatitis, can quickly appear. This is called acute hepatitis. Symptoms of infection with the virus can also develop slowly and last a long time. This is called chronic hepatitis. Hepatitis B virus infections can range from mild to severe.