Symptoms Checklist

4.1 Symptoms of Hepatitis B

Signs and symptoms of hepatitis B usually occur on average of 90 days after exposure to the hepatitis B virus.1 Hepatitis B symptoms can range from mild to severe. The most common hepatitis B symptoms are:

• Tiredness
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea or feeling sick to your stomach
• Stomach pain
• Weight loss
• Yellow skin or yellowing of the whites of your eyes (jaundice)
• Dark coloured urine
• Clay or whitish coloured bowel movements
• Pain in your joints

However, it is important to remember that nearly all infants and children, and 30 percent of people infected in adulthood, do not develop hepatitis B symptoms.2,3 The older you are, the more likely you are you are to have hepatitis B symptoms.

However, even if you don't have any symptoms, you can unknowingly pass the virus to others.

Get Tested

The only sure way to know if you are infected with the hepatitis B virus is to visit a healthcare provider and get a hepatitis B blood test.

Risk Factors

There are certain risk factors that may make you more susceptible for becoming infected with hepatitis B. Mother-to-child transmission during birth is the predominant way in which the virus is spread. Other risk factors for hepatitis B transmission include: drug injections; tattoos; other piercing activities; unprotected sex with an infected person; occupational healthcare risks; and blood transfusions or organ transplants.4,5

References

1 Center for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/Ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/faqb.htm, accessed 8 April 2009
2 World Health Organization, http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/CEDD5D4E-71BE-49F4-AEEC-1384751598EE/0/POA_HepB.pdf, accessed 8 April 2009
3 Center for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/fact.htm, accessed 8 April 2009
4 World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/immunization/topics/hepatitis_b/en/index1.html, accessed 8 April 2009
5 Hepatitis B Foundation, http://www.hepb.org/professionals/prevention_measures.htm, accessed July 2009