Symptoms Checklist
Symptoms of Hepatitis B
Signs and symptoms of hepatitis B usually occur 9-21 weeks 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,2 and 30 percent of people infected in adulthood,3 do not develop hepatitis B symptoms. The older you are, the more likely 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 medical professional 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 health care risks; and blood transfusions or organ transplants.4
References
1 Center for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/faqb.htm, accessed 1 August 20072 World Health Organization, http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/CEDD5D4E-71BE-49F4-AEEC-1384751598EE/0/POA_HepB.pdf, accessed 22 June 2007
3 Center for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/fact.htm, accessed 22 June 2007
4 World Health Organization, http://www.euro.who.int/Document/SHA/HEP_B.pdf, accessed 27 July 2007