What are the symptoms of Hepatitis B?
Infection with HBV can cause both short-term (acute) disease and long-term (chronic) disease.Acute HBV: When symptoms occur, they include loss of appetite, weakness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), dark urine, skin rashes and joint pain. The incubation period is usually 3 to 4 months. The case-fatality rate is about 1 to 2 percent.Chronic HBV infection: Persons with chronic HBV infection often do not feel sick for decades after infection, but between 15 and 25 percent will die of liver cancer or cirrhosisscarring of the liver (Margolis, et al, 1995). Chronic carriers of HBV are also capable of spreading the disease to others.
Infection with HBV can cause both short-term (acute) disease and long-term (chronic) disease. Acute HBV: When symptoms occur, they include loss of appetite, weakness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, jaundice (yellow skin or eyes), dark urine, skin rashes and joint pain. The incubation period is usually 3 to 4 months. The case-fatality rate is about 1 to 2 percent. Chronic HBV infection: Persons with chronic HBV infection often do not feel sick for decades after infection, but between 15 and 25 percent will die of liver cancer or cirrhosisscarring of the liver (Margolis, et al, 1995). Chronic carriers of HBV are also capable of spreading the disease to others.
Hepatitis B is a silent killer. It is asymptomatic so many carriers feel perfectly healthy. Only 30% of those with acute infections develop symptoms. Most APIs are infected at birth or early childhood, when symptoms may never develop. When symptoms of hepatitis B infection do develop, the include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain and loss of appetite.
