Centers for Disease Control Urges More Testing for Hepatitis B

New recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge routine testing for hepatitis B for a growing number of demographic groups. Released on Sept. 18, the guidelines aim to identify more people living with the disease who aren't getting treated. The disease kills 2,000-4,000 people in the United States each year and is a cause of liver disease and liver cancer.

"Chronic hepatitis B affects the lives of more than one million Americans, many of whom do not even know they are infected, said John W. Ward, M.D., director of CDC′s Division of Viral Hepatitis, in a press release. "These new recommendations are critical to identifying people who are living with the disease without the benefits of medical attention."

Though 800,000 to 1.4 million Americans live with the disease, many have no symptoms and no idea they're infected. However, early diagnosis is one element identified by the CDC as a key to controlling the disease.

Previous recommendations suggested testing all pregnant women, infants born to infected mothers, household members and sexual partners of infected people and those living with HIV. Now routine testing is also recommended for people born in Africa or Asia or places with a two percent or higher prevalence of chronic HBV infections. The rate of infection in the U.S. is quite high for foreign-born populations from these areas.

According to the World Health Organization, about two billion people around the world have the disease and about 600,000 die each year from it. The virus is more than 50 times more infectious that HIV.

Testing is also recommended for men who have sex with men, injection drug users, people with abnormal liver function tests and people who require immunosuppressive therapy such as chemotherapy for malignant diseases.

According to the Hepatitis B Foundation, the disease is the most common serious liver infection in the world and is transmitted through blood and bodily fluids, whether from blood-to-blood contact or unprotected sex, using infected needles or from mother to child during delivery -- not through casual contact. However, there's also a vaccine to protect against the disease.

Though there is no cure, there are seven approved drugs for adults and more in development. Also, not everyone who's infected needs to be taking medication.

Sources:

1. "CDC expands testing recommendations for chronic hepatitis B virus infection," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2. "About hepatitis B," Hepatitis B Foundation.

3. "Hepatitis B," World Health Organization.