Hepatitis B is apparently spreading in Asia with no hope for a turnaround due to a lack of understanding about the disease and its transmission. Between 60 and 70 percent of those interviewed in China, Singapore, and the Philippines, believed that hepatitis B is contracted through eating infected food. Even nearly half of those who had the virus believed that they caught it from eating infected food or from generally poor health. Chronic hepatitis B affects 360 million people worldwide; 281 million of those people are in Asia. Hepatitis is the tenth leading cause of death worldwide, but one out of four of those infected in Asia will die from either cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer.

More than half of the chronic hepatitis B sufferers were believed to have been infected by their mothers before they were born. Some infected people suffer symptoms such as jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, and joint pain, but not all. In fact, symptoms are less common in children. Therefore, if you have adopted a child from Asia it is imperative to test specifically for hepatitis B. Less than 10 percent of patients, with chronic hepatitis B who live in Hong Kong, are being treated according to a recent survey.

Hepatitis B virus, HBV, attacks the liver and can cause a lifelong infection, cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure, and death. A blood test is the only way to know for sure if a person is infected. While there isn’t a specific cure for HBV antiviral drugs are available for the treatment of chronic infection and there is an immunization available to prevent contracting the virus.

A parent of an infected adopted child could become infected by exposure to the child’s body fluids. The risk would be greater if the parent wasn’t immunized and wasn’t aware of the child’s chronic infection.

Most people who are infected will develop protective levels of antibodies and experience complete resolution. Between five and 10 percent of individuals will become chronic carriers because they are unable to clear the infection. Between 10 and 30 percent of the chronic carriers will develop liver disease or cirrhosis. Chronic carriers can infect other people for the rest of their lives. Their risk of developing liver cancer is 200 times higher than that of an uninfected person.

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Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2006