What is the natural history of hepatitis B?
The natural history of hepatitis B is a duel between HBV and the host’s immune response. If the host immune system is tolerant to the virus (immune‐tolerant phase in children), there is no injury to the host despite a high viral load.
What does it mean to be chronically infected with hepatitis B?
People who test positive for the hepatitis B virus for more than six months (after their first blood test result) are diagnosed as having a chronic infection. This means their immune system was not able to get rid of the hepatitis B virus and it still remains in their blood and liver.
Can you live a long life with chronic hepatitis B?
The most important thing to remember is that hepatitis B is a chronic medical condition (such as diabetes and high blood pressure) that can be successfully managed if you take good care of your health and your liver. You should expect to live a long, full life.
How does hepatitis B cause chronic infection?
Hepatitis B is caused by the hepatitis B virus, which is spread between people by body fluids. It is a serious disease that causes your liver to become inflamed. Most people recover completely. Some people have long-lasting effects, which can lead to liver disease (including cirrhosis), liver cancer and death.
Is Hep B contagious forever?
Symptoms of hepatitis B may not appear for 3 months after exposure and can last for 2–12 weeks. However, you are still contagious, even without symptoms . The virus can live outside the body for up to seven days.
Does having hepatitis B make you immunocompromised?
Immunodeficiency, rather than other risk factors, is responsible for the increased incidence of cancer. The microenvironment of HBV-related HCC is more immunosuppressive than that of non-viral-related HCC[92]. Therefore, HBV-induced immune suppression may play a crucial role in HCC development and progression.
Does hepatitis B weaken the immune system?
Hepatitis B Virus Does Not Interfere With Innate Immune Responses in the Human Liver.
Can chronic hepatitis B be cleared?
What is chronic (long-term) hepatitis B? Some people, especially those who get infected in adulthood, are able to clear the virus from their bodies without treatment. For other people, acute hepatitis B leads to life-long infection known as chronic hepatitis B.
Can chronic hepatitis B cured?
Infants and children are more likely to develop a chronic (long-lasting) hepatitis B infection. A vaccine can prevent hepatitis B, but there’s no cure if you have the condition. If you’re infected, taking certain precautions can help prevent spreading the virus to others.
Does hepatitis B shorten your life?
Among women, chronic HBV infection increases the relative risk of mortality to 1.16 (1.04–1.34), as compared to noncarriers, which is consistent with the findings of previous research. This results in a decrease in life expectancy from 82.0 years in noncarriers to 80.1 years in carriers (Figure
What’s the natural history of chronic hepatitis B virus?
The natural history of chronic HBV infection in individuals is complex, and infected persons can pass through several phases. Patients can move from a state of high viral load and no liver disease to one of active liver disease, followed by inactive disease, and then revert back to active liver disease years later.
Is there a natural history of HBV infection?
Many studies pertaining to the natural history of HBV have been published in the past three decades. However, these studies vary in quality of design and conduct. Few are prospective and fewer of those are population-based. Many are clinic-based case-control studies or case series.
What are the four phases of HBV infection?
There are four phases of CHB, and the host immune response in each phase determines the outcome of infection and the severity of liver injury. Liver damage is caused by the host immune response rather than the HBV itself.
What are the risks of chronic HBV infection?
Longitudinal prospective outcome studies have clearly shown that patients with chronic HBV infection have a considerable risk of developing HCC during their lifetime (1a, 1b).