Hepatitis B Statistics

Hepatitis B statistics can lead to a better understanding of who the disease affects. Perhaps the most promising hepatitis B statistics involve the decrease in the number of new hepatitis B infections -- from 260,000 in the 1980s to about 73,000 in 2003. Other hepatitis B statistics indicate that the highest rate of the disease occurs in 20- to 49-year-olds.

A Summary of Hepatitis B Statistics

Following are some key hepatitis B statistics:
 
 
  • The number of new hepatitis B infections per year has declined from an average of 260,000 in the 1980s to about 73,000 in 2003.
     
  • The highest rate of this disease occurs in 20- to 49-year-olds.
     
  • The greatest decline in hepatitis B has happened among children and adolescents due to routine hepatitis B vaccination.
     
  • About 1.25 million Americans are estimated to be chronically infected with hepatitis B. Of these people, 20 to 30 percent acquired their infection in childhood.
     
  • The overall rate of death from a hepatitis B infection is 1 percent.
     
  • Acute hepatitis B will lead to a chronic (long-term) liver infection in 30 percent to 90 percent of people infected as infants or children and 6 to 10 percent of people who are infected as adolescents and adults. Chronic infection can lead to chronic liver disease, liver scarring (cirrhosis), and liver cancer.

 

(For more detailed information about this type of hepatitis, click Hepatitis B to see the full eMedTV article.)

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Written by/reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
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