What causes blood-borne infection?
The virus of hepatitis B is very resilient and spreads readily from person to person by contact with very small amounts of infected blood, serum or tissue fluids. It has been known to survive for at least eight years on inanimate surfaces in a laboratory and can also show more resistance to disinfections than HIV. With tiny abrasions in the skin, or where a procedure involves piercing the skin, even where blood is not normally drawn, the serum that exudes is equally infectious. A person could feel well, (the incubation period is two to six months and the person is infectious), or be a “carrier”, and in these instances there is usually no sign that the person is carrying the infection. The long-term carrier of hepatitis B is usually symptomless. Early symptoms are fever accompanied by an intense loss of appetite. The skin and eyeballs may go yellow, and the urine can go dark and the stools pale. Patients may feel severely ill for several months. The liver may fail and very occasionally
