Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis B virus that affects the liver, and it can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms after exposure; for others, symptoms appear 30 to 180 days after exposure and can include nausea, vomiting, yellowish skin, fatigue, yellow urine and abdominal pain. An infection lasting longer than six months is usually considered chronic, and the likelihood of chronic disease is higher for those infected at a younger age: about 90 percent of those infected during or shortly after birth develop it. Cirrhosis and liver cancer eventually develop in about 25 percent of those with chronic infection. The virus is transmitted by exposure to infectious blood or body fluids.