Hepatitis B is one of five viruses that can infect your liver, causing inflammation. It’s spread through bodily fluids. Most people only have a brief, acute infection. But for some people, it becomes chronic.
A chronic infection can do serious long-term damage to your liver. Hepatitis B is preventable with a vaccine, but it has no cure. Hepatitis B is the most common liver infection in the world. As many as 2 billion people have been infected worldwide.
Approximately 250 million people worldwide are living with chronic hepatitis B infection, many unaware. Hepatitis B infection comes from the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Transmission occurs when fluids from the body of a person who’s infected enter the body of a person who’s uninfected.
Chronic hepatitis B develops when your immune system fails to fight off the virus. Most people successfully fight it off during the acute phase of the infection. The acute phase is when your immune system recognizes the virus and launches its attack.
