Question: What is (are) Hepatitis B: What Asian and Pacific Islander Americans Need to Know ?
Answer: Hepatitis B is a liver disease spread through contact with blood, semen, or other body fluids from a person infected with the hepatitis B virus. The disease is most commonly spread from an infected mother to her infant at birth. Hepatitis B is also spread through sex, wound-to-wound contact, and contact with items that may have blood on them, such as shaving razors, toothbrushes, syringes, and tattoo and body piercing needles. Hepatitis B is not spread through casual contact such as shaking hands or hugging; nor is it spread by sharing food or beverages, by sneezing and coughing, or through breastfeeding.
Source: NIDDK

Question: What is (are) Hepatitis B: What Asian and Pacific Islander Americans Need to Know ?
Answer: Hepatitis B may start as a brief, flu-like illness. Most healthy adults and children older than 5 completely recover after the bodys immune system gets rid of the virus. Hepatitis B becomes chronic when the bodys immune system cant get rid of the virus. Over time, having the virus can lead to inflammation of the liver; scar tissue in the liver, called cirrhosis; or liver cancer. Inflammation is the painful red swelling that results when tissues of the body become infected. Young children and people with weakened immune systems are especially at risk. People who were infected as infants have a 90 percent chance of developing chronic hepatitis B.1
Source: NIDDK

Question: Who is at risk for Hepatitis B: What Asian and Pacific Islander Americans Need to Know? ?
Answer: Since 1986, a hepatitis B vaccine has been available and should be given to newborns and children in the United States. The vaccine, however, is unavailableor has only recently become availablein many parts of the world. You are at higher risk for hepatitis B if you or your mother was born in a region of the world where hepatitis B is common, meaning 2 percent or more of the population is chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus.1 In most Asian and Pacific Island nations, 8 to 16 percent of the population is chronically infected.2
Source: NIDDK

Question: What are the symptoms of Hepatitis B: What Asian and Pacific Islander Americans Need to Know ?
Answer: Hepatitis B is called a silent killer because many people have no symptoms, so the disease often progresses unnoticed for years. Unfortunately, many people first learn they have chronic hepatitis B when they develop symptoms of severe liver damage, which include - yellowish eyes and skin, called jaundice - a swollen stomach or ankles - tiredness - nausea - weakness - loss of appetite - weight loss - spiderlike blood vessels, called spider angiomas, that develop on the skin
Source: NIDDK

Question: Who is at risk for Hepatitis B: What Asian and Pacific Islander Americans Need to Know? ?
Answer: Anyone can get hepatitis B, but some people are at higher risk, including - people who were born to a mother with hepatitis B - people who have close household contact with someone infected with the hepatitis B virus - people who have lived in parts of the world where hepatitis B is common, including most Asian and Pacific Island nations - people who are exposed to blood or body fluids at work - people on hemodialysis - people whose sex partner(s) has hepatitis B - people who have had more than one sex partner in the last 6 months or have a history of sexually transmitted disease - injection drug users - men who have sex with men
Source: NIDDK