HOW HBV IS TRANSMITTED?
Approximately one third of the world’s population or about 2 billion people, have been exposed to, or are currently infected with, HBV. Approximately 200,000 new HBV infections occur annually in the United States. How did all these people acquire this virus? Well, HBV is an extremely hardy virus. It has been detected in blood, sweat, tears, saliva, semen, vaginal secretions, Âmenstrual blood, and breast milk. However, only blood, semen and (possibly) saliva have been found to be modes for transmitting the infection. HBV is much harder to catch than the virus that causes a cold or the flu, but a lot easier to catch than HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), or HCV (the virus that causes hepatitis C). As discussed in Chapter 7, HBV is transmitted to others parenterally (introduced into the body by any way other than via the intestinal tract). Hepatitis B is not transmitted by the casual contacts which occur in the course of daily life. Thus, a person cannot get hepatitis B from eating food p
