Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a blood borne infection transmitted through contaminated body fluids. It affects 0.1% to 0.5% of low risk people in the US (128,000+ annually) and 200 million individual worldwide. Hepatitis B is the primary cause of liver cancer worldwide and is responsible for more cancer deaths than any other agent in the third world. In areas that have adopted Western lifestyles, it is less prevalent and cigarettes are a much more common cause of other fatal cancers. People at risk for Hepatitis B include intravenous drug users, those with high-risk sexual behavior, infants of mothers with hepatitis and health care workers exposed to infected blood and body fluids. Blood used for transfusion in the US is screened for infectious hepatitis.Hepatitis B also has a wide range of symptoms, but is a potentially much more serious disease than hepatitis A. Up to 10% of infected people, over one million in the US, develop a chronic infection that is contagious (90% of infected infants). This condition also puts the individual at risk for hepatic carcinoma (liver cancer). A small percentage of people develop chronic, active hepatitis, a situation where recovery is incomplete. This may require long term treatment with medication that is poorly tolerated in some and may disqualify a pilot or controller from aviation duties. Finally, approximately 0.1-1.0% develop "fulminant hepatitis", a very aggressive and often fatal form of the disease. Nearly 6,000 deaths per year in the US are attributable to hepatitis B.
