STATISTICS ABOUT HEPATITIS AND LIVER CANCER

A Worldwide Threat

• One third of the world's total population (2 billion) has been infected with Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).

• About 1 million people die each year (equivalent to 2800 deaths/day, 115 deaths/hour, or 1-2 deaths/minute) from liver cancer or liver failure caused by HBV.

HBV in the United States

• In the United States, an estimated 130,000 people become infected with HBV each year.

• 5000 people die each year from HBV related liver cancer or cirrhosis with liver failure.

• An estimated 1.3 million Americans are chronically infected with HBV.

HBV Facts - How Does It Spread?

• HBV is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV.

• HBV is not spread by air, food, water, breastfeeding, casual contact in an office setting, kissing, hugging, coughing, sneezing, and sharing eating utensils or drinking glasses.

• Most people from Asia, the Pacific Rim, and Africa become infected with HBV during childhood: from infected mother to child at birth, from child to child contact in household settings, and from reuse of non-sterilized needles and syringes in poor healthcare facilities.

• Most non-API Americans and Europeans who become infected do so during young adulthood through sexual activity and intravenous drug use. In addition, HBV is the major infectious occupational hazard of health workers.

• More than 2/3 of HBV cases have no symptoms - or unrecognized symptoms - so most people who become chronically infected never know it.

• If symptoms develop, they are often mistaken for those of influenza - fever, fatigue, joint or muscle pain, loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting. Jaundice (the yellow discoloration of eyes and skin), which is usually a sign of liver damage, may not occur.

The Relationship between HBV and Liver Cancer - A Silent Killer

• One out of 4 people with HBV infection who became chronically infected during childhood (in other words, approximately 100 million of the 400 million chronic HBV infected people in the world) will die of HBV-related liver cancer or cirrhosis.

• Liver cancer is often fatal because when the cancer is small, there are no symptoms and thus, the diagnosis is generally made quite late.

• An estimated 550,000 people each year die of liver cancer.

• Liver cancer is one of the top three causes of death by cancer in most of Asia, the Pacific, and sub-Saharan Africa, and at least 80% of liver cancer is caused by HBV. Worldwide, liver cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in men.

Protecting Yourself and Your Loved Ones is Easy - Get Vaccinated

• HBV infection, especially during infancy and early childhood, is easy to prevent with the hepatitis B vaccine. Since 80% of liver cancer is HBV-related, the vaccine is considered the first 'anti-cancer vaccine.'

• Hepatitis B vaccine is safe and has been given to over 500 million people in the world.

Information provided by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University (http://liver.stanford.edu)