Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a vaccine preventable disease that infected approximately 60,000 people in the United States in 2004. Approximately 1.25 million Americans suffer from chronic HBV infection. The common signs and symptoms of HBV include: jaundice, fatigue, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and joint pain. Approximately 30 percent of persons have no signs or symptoms of HBV infection. Without vaccination, infants and young children are afflicted most with chronic infection. Ninety percent of infants infected at birth and 30 percent of children infected before age five develop chronic infection. However, six percent of persons infected after age five develop chronic infection. An estimated 15 to 25 percent of infants infected with HBV through perinatal transmission will ultimately die of liver failure secondary to chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis or primary liver cancer, according to the CDC's Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (Eighth Edition, January 2004).

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can be transmitted percutaneously (needlestick), permucosally (blood into eye, sexual intercourse), non-intact skin (blood or secretions into open wounds/cuts/dermatitis, etc.), perinatally (from mother to child during birth), and continuous close contact (household contact with a HBV-positive person).

Because HBV is stable on environmental surfaces for at least 7 days, indirect inoculation can occur via inanimate objects (such as toothbrushes and razors). It is not transmitted via the fecal-oral route (as hepatitis A is). Tests can detect HBV in the blood 30 to 60 days after exposure to infection. The virus persists for variable periods and phases, and the incubation period can range from six weeks to six months (CDC, 2004).