Mode of Transmission
- Direct – From person to person contaminated hands.
- Indirect – Through contaminated food, water & milk consumption.
- Consumption of raw or inadequately cooked food.
Who is at risk of getting Hepatitis B?
Anyone who has not been immunized can get Hepatitis B. Small children & adolescents are particularly vulnerable to contracting the disease from their mother at birth, or simply from another child while playing. Though children rarely develop acute illness after infection, children run the highest risk of developing chronic Hepatitis B, which may cause liver complications later in life.
Child to Child Transmission
Child to Child Transmission most likely happen as a result of contact of skin sores, small break in the skin, or mucous membranes with blood sores or perhaps saliva.
Mother to baby (perinatal) transmission
Transmission from an infected mother to her baby usually happens at the time the baby is born.
Injection transmission
Unsafe injection practices are a major source of Hepatitis B transmission.
Sexual transmission
Hepatitis B is efficiently transmitted by sexual contact, cases which can account for a high proportion of Hepatitis B among adolescents & adults in countries with low & intermediate prevalence of HBV infection.
