07/01/25 Public Health Education Topic: Hepatitis B

Per CDC:

Hepatitis B is a vaccine-preventable liver infection caused by HBV. HBV is transmitted when blood, semen, or another body fluid from a person infected with the virus enters the body of someone who is uninfected.

Hepatitis B can range from a mild, short-term, acute illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, long-term, chronic infection.

Signs and symptoms

Many people infected with hepatitis B virus won’t experience symptoms. If symptoms occur during acute infection, they often begin 90 days after exposure. Although the symptoms of acute HBV infection and chronic HBV infection may be similar, most people with chronic infection do not have symptoms until much later in life, often decades after exposure.

Symptoms of hepatitis B include:

• Dark urine or clay-colored stools

• Feeling tired

• Fever

• Joint pain

• Loss of appetite

• Nausea, stomach pain, throwing up

• Yellow skin or eyes (jaundice)

Learn more about hepatitis B symptoms.

How it spreads

Hepatitis B is primarily spread when blood, semen, or certain other body fluids – even in microscopic amounts – from a person infected with HBV enter the body of someone who is not infected.

Although anyone can get hepatitis B, certain life circumstances, jobs, and behaviors can increase your risk.

Learn more about specific risk factors for hepatitis B.

Prevention

The best way to prevent hepatitis B is by getting vaccinated. You need to get all shots in the series to be fully protected.

CDC recommends the following groups get vaccinated against hepatitis B:

• All infants.

• All children and adolescents younger than 19 who have not been vaccinated.

• Adults age 19–59.

• Adults age 60 and older at higher risk for hepatitis B.

Learn more about preventing hepatitis B.

To learn more visit: Hepatitis B Basics | Hepatitis B | CDC