This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Hepatitis B virus hepatitis

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Hepatitis B infection is a serious and common infectious disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) (1)

  • HBV is an enveloped DNA virus. The complete virus particle is known as the Dane particle and has characteristic serological markers
  • it transmitted parenterally, or by intimate, usually sexual contact (1).

Hepatitis infection can be either:

  • acute
    • occurs in 1-4% of hospitalised patients with HBV, a figure which is increased by concomitant infection with hepatitis D virus
    • usually a self-limiting disease marked by acute inflammation and hepatocellular necrosis
    • case fatality rate is around 0.5–1%
  • chronic
    • defined as persistence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) for six months or more
    • chronic sequelae are attributed to deficiency in the host immune response rather than to the cytotoxicity of HBV
    • encompasses a spectrum of disease (1)

Reference:

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.