More than half of children under 5 exposed to hep B exposed via household contact
More than half of children younger than 5 years exposed to hepatitis B virus (HBV) are exposed by someone in their household other than their birth mother, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDWeek), held from Oct. 21 to 24 in Washington, D.C.
A study presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's annual meeting found that more than half of children under 5 years old are exposed to the hepatitis B virus (HBV) by someone in their household, other than their mother. The research, conducted by Karen Jacobson and colleagues from Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, analyzed data from KPNC members aged under 5 years.
Out of the 158,169 children in 131,800 households, 1,689 had a household contact with active HBV infection. Of these exposed children, 41.8% were birth-exposed and 58.2% were household-exposed. Vaccination within seven days of birth was achieved in 100% of birth-exposed children, 93.5% of household-exposed children, and 86.7% of unexposed children.
Jacobson emphasized that HBV can be transmitted by anyone with an active infection, not just the child's mother, underscoring the importance of vaccinating infants at birth to protect against both known and unknown transmission sources.
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