HIV infection is everybody’s fear, yet hepatitis B is said to be as much as 50 times more infectious than HIV! While the human immune deficiency virus (HIV) survives for a matter of minutes outside the body, the hepatitis B virus can survive for days and weeks outside the human body, posing a danger for months after contamination.

How hepatitis B is spread

The hepatitis B virus is transmitted when the infected blood or bodily fluid of one person somehow enters the body of another person. Most commonly this happens during unprotected sex, direct contact with an infected person’s bleeding wound, when an infected mother gives birth to her baby, during playing between children through open cuts and sores, unsafe injection practices, the sharing of needles when administering intravenous drugs, the sharing of razors or toothbrushes, or when non-sterile instruments are used for tattooing, body piercing or circumcisions.

Because the virus can survive for long, it can also spread very easily in public places, especially where surfaces such as taps, stair railings, lift buttons and door handles have been contaminated.

Preventative measures

  • The first step in prevention most certainly is getting vaccinated. Hepatitis B is the only chronic hepatitis for which a preventative vaccine is available. In South Africa, the hepatitis B vaccine has formed part of the routine childhood immunisation protocol since 1995, and the vaccine is also available to adults.
  • The vaccine is very effective. Experts believe around 95% of people who get vaccinated will not develop a serious form of hepatitis B. Immunity is acquired as soon as the vaccine is administered. The vaccine is also very safe and has only harmless side-effects such as redness and swelling at the vaccination site, with some people developing a low-grade fever.

    The availability of a vaccine means that the form of liver cancer that develops from hepatitis B is the only cancer for which a vaccine is available.

  • Avoid contact with open wounds, grazes or cuts.
  • Use condoms during sex, as the virus is present in blood, sperm and vaginal fluid.
  • Never share needles or syringes as an infected needle can introduce the virus directly into your bloodstream.
  • Wash your hands regularly, especially when you have been in public places.

Our Employee Wellbeing Programme (EAP) is available 24 hours a day of you wanted to know more about the causes and prevention of hepatitis B.