Who is considered at “high risk” of contracting hepatitis B?
One out of 20 people in the United States will get infected with HBV sometime during their lives. Your risk is higher if you live in the same house with someone who has a chronic HBV infection, have a job that involves contact with human blood, share needles, are a patient or work in a home for the developmentally disabled, have hemophilia, or travel to areas where hepatitis B is common. Because HBV is transmitted perinatally – from mother to child during birth – people who are born to women from Southeast Asia, Africa, the Amazon Basin in South America, the Pacific Islands, and the Middle East are at risk for contracting HBV. As a sexually transmitted disease, HBV is 100 times more transmittable than HIV. People who have multiple sex partners or are men having sex with men are at high risk for contracting HBV.
