Prevention | Transmission of hepatitis B

Prevention

As with all sexually transmitted diseases, one protects oneself against infection with hepatitis B during sexual intercourse with a condom. This prevents contact of the sperm or vaginal secretion with the other partner. However, this does not rule out infection via other body fluids, so theoretically infection through kissing can also occur.

Oral sex is also a potential source of infection through the contact of body fluids with the oral mucosa and should therefore not be performed or performed unprotected as long as the partner’s disease status is unknown. In general, care should be taken not to come into contact with the body fluids of an infected person. This may be easier with tear fluid, but somewhat more difficult with saliva and breast milk.

For (expectant) mothers it is therefore recommended to make sure that no infection is present. In order to avoid infection through saliva, it is usually sufficient to follow hygienic standards and avoid contact with saliva of persons at risk. Vaccination against hepatitis B is recommended by the Standing Vaccination Commission and offers good protection against hepatitis B.

Drug addiction

It is well known that anyone who is addicted to drugs has an increased risk of getting infected with HIV or a hepatitis virus. What is meant here is primarily the use of intravenously used drugs with unclean needles. Contact with the blood of a person infected with hepatitis B relatively often (i.e. in about 30% of cases) results in infection, while contact with other body fluids such as saliva or urine results in infection less frequently.

This mainly depends on the number of pathogens in the blood of the infected person. If the number of pathogens is high, it is very likely that there are also pathogens in other body fluids. Infection via contact with saliva, tear fluid or similar, for example through sharing orally or nasally consumed drugs, is also possible. As a result, hepatitis B is one of the most common liver diseases and infectious diseases among drug addicts, along with hepatitis C.