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Hepatitis B is transmitted through blood or bodily fluids - spread through unprotected sex, blood transfusions, sharing of needles or contaminated tattoo or acupuncture instruments. Hepatitis C spreads only through infected blood. Patients with hepatitis B typically fight off the virus on their own, after which they retain lifelong immunity to the disease; however, about 6% to 10% of adults and children over five who are infected go on to develop chronic disease. (The numbers are much higher for younger children and infants who contract the virus.) Hepatitis C is more often a chronic infection, with a minority of patients experiencing...
...reason the U.S. government devotes comparatively piddling resources to its prevention, tracking and control. Hepatitis receives a fraction of the funding devoted to HIV/AIDS by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, although it affects three to five times as many Americans. "The people with hepatitis B and C are less vocal and way less effective communicators than the HIV lobby," explains Dieterich...
...report recommends increasing funding for hepatitis education and prevention. One key area in need of resources is vaccination. Given that 1,000 infants are still infected at birth by their hepatitis B-positive mothers each year, the report recommends that all full-term babies born to infected mothers should receive a first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine before leaving the delivery room, as soon as they are stable and washed. It also recommends that states mandate the vaccine - which, while widely used, is still not required for children entering school or day care in Alabama, Montana and South Dakota...
...tandem with more aggressive vaccination programs, the report suggests educational programs for prisoners and other at-risk populations, including immigrants from areas like East and Southeast Asia, where hepatitis B circulates widely. Some 40,000 to 45,000 people legally emigrate to the U.S. every year from such countries, where in some cases, stigma - such as in China, where infected individuals face job discrimination - may make people wary of seeking testing or medical attention...
...Staff writer Stephanie B. Garlock can be reached at sgarlock@college.harvard.edu...