Hepatitis B: Are your patients at risk?

Do you have:

adolescent patients?
patients who are sexually active with multiple partners?
patients living with people who are chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus?
patients whose jobs potentially expose them to human blood or body fluids?
patients who use illicit drugs?
patients who travel internationally to endemic areas?
patients who were born in Asia, Africa, the Amazon Basin in South America, the Pacific Islands, Eastern Europe, or the Middle East?
patients who are Native Americans or Alaskan Natives?
patients who have hemophilia?
patients who are receiving hemodialysis treatment?
patients who are monogamous but whose partners are at risk for hepatitis B virus infection?

If you responded yes to any one of these questions, you have patients who are at risk of infection with the Hepatitis B virus.

What is Hepatitis B?

The hepatitis B virus infects the liver in all age groups and can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and death in many of those afflicted. The virus is found in the blood and body fluids of infected individuals and can be spread through sexual contact; sharing needles or razors; from mother to child during birth; and by living in a household with an infected carrier. The hepatitis B virus is a hardy virus that can live outside the body for several weeks.

What is America doing about Hepatitis B?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many public and private health organizations are committed to the control and eventual eradication of hepatitis B in the United States.

How can I protect my patients?

A safe, highly effective vaccine for the prevention of hepatitis B has been available for over a decade. A three-shot series will protect your patients and contribute to the elimination of this silent, highly infectious killer from every community in America. Please review your adolescent and adult patient's medical records and ask about risk factors. Encourage your patients to start their hepatitis B vaccine series as soon as possible.

Facts Every Health Care Provider Should Know About Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B can be fatal.
Hepatitis B, once caught, has no cure. There is, however, safe and proven prevention in the form of the hepatitis B vaccine.
Hepatitis B virus infects over 200,000 people in the US every year, and there are currently 1.5 million chronic carriers in America alone.
Hepatitis B kills over 5,000 Americans each year. It is a leading cause of chronic cirrhosis and a known cause of hepatocellular carcinoma. Death is usually delayed 10 to 20 years from the time of original infection.
The hepatitis B virus is found in blood and body fluids such as semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. It can be spread through sexual contact; by sharing needles or razors; and by tattooing or body piercing with unsterile equipment. However, 40% of those infected do not know how they contracted the disease and acknowledge no risk factors when asked.
Pregnant women with hepatitis B will infect more than 50% of their infants. 90% of the 6,000 infants infected perinatally in the US each year will become chronic hepatitis B carriers, and 25% will eventually die of cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Up to 30% of all pediatric infections occur through contact with adult chronic carriers of hepatitis B living in the same household.
Seventy-seven percent of those infected with the hepatitis B virus every year are between the ages of 15-39. Fewer than 5% of adolescents and young adults have received the hepatitis B vaccine.
Hepatitis B vaccine is the only product that will prevent a sexually transmitted disease (STD), as well as cancer.
Many patients infected with hepatitis B have no symptoms. When symptoms do appear, they include loss of appetite, extreme tiredness, vomiting, stomach pain, and jaundice.
Safe, effective hepatitis B vaccines have been available since 1982. Please protect your patients; give them the vaccine.

Produced by the Hepatitis B Action Group, National Coalition for Adult Immunization through an unrestricted educational grant from Merck Vaccine Division.

National Coalition for Adult Immunization
4733 Bethesda Avenue, Suite 750
Bethesda, MD 20814-5228

March 1997