Hepatitis B is a blood-borne transmissible disease, and the hepatitis B virus is spread one by one, with scattered infections generally occurring in the population. The hepatitis B virus does not become violently epidemic like the influenza virus, but it has a tenacious life force and a hidden transmission mechanism, and such a scattered occurrence one by one has accumulated 120 million infections in China as well. In recent years, due to the widespread use of the hepatitis B vaccine, the cumulative number of hepatitis B infections has dropped to less than 100 million.
Among these people, those who are infectious and can transmit the hepatitis B virus to others are called “infectious agents”.
The degree of contagiousness depends on the level of the virus in the blood. Chronic hepatitis B carriers with “major triple-positive” virus have active virus replication and high levels of virus in their blood, making them the most active source of infection; carriers with “major triple-positive” virus who are hidden in the population and have not yet been detected have the highest potential infectivity.
However, not all people with hepatitis B virus are infectious. Chronic hepatitis B carriers with “minor triple-positive” have virus in their liver, but the replication level is very low and the hepatitis B virus is not detected in the serum, so they are less infectious.
The size of infectivity has nothing to do with the level of serum aminotransferases, as it is the virus, not the aminotransferases, that is infectious.
The potential for transmission of an infectious source also depends on the person’s work or lifestyle and how closely they come into contact with others.
Daily contact with carriers is not contagious. Transmission requires certain routes, mainly blood transmission, sexual contact and mother-to-child transmission, and of course, medical transmission, including surgery, dental instruments, blood collection needles, acupuncture needles and endoscopy.
Hepatitis B virus is a blood-borne virus, and blood is necessary as a carrier for different transmission routes.
Our blood transfusion management is very strict in recent years, blood transfusion transmission has been very rare; currently more common is the “micro blood inoculation”, such as tattoos, eyebrow tattoo, shaving, drug use, etc., because the infection is hidden and do not know. As the saying goes, we often know the risk of their own infinite magnification, and the risk of the unknown numbness, when we know that the other party has hepatitis B virus infection, will often be particularly taboo, but do not know that in fact, tattoos, hairdresser’s razor will also cause hidden transmission, such signs will often be ignored.
Mother-to-child transmission, once the most important route, has been largely interrupted by the widespread use of the hepatitis B vaccine. Mother-to-child transmission consists of two components, one is vertical transmission and the other is horizontal transmission. People have always thought that mother-to-child transmission is vertical transmission, but it is not. Intrauterine transmission accounts for only 10% of the cases, and only 10% of the cases are transmitted during pregnancy in the womb during fetal life, which is not very high. The main thing is transmission at the level of close living contact during the perinatal period and after birth. As a mother with a major triplet, the likelihood of her child being infected after birth is 90-95%, and the chances of a child born to a mother with E antigen negative hepatitis B being infected are half that of a child born to an E antigen positive mother, about 45-40%.
Close contact transmission in daily life is mainly due to contact with objects contaminated by the patient’s blood, such as skin abrasions and breaks in carriers of “major triple-positive”, releasing a large amount of hepatitis B virus to contaminate the surface of the environment, which can survive in vitro for a long time and then be infected by the broken skin of susceptible people.
Infection from mucosal injury during sexual intercourse. In Europe and the United States sexual contact is the most important way of adult hepatitis B virus transmission; in China hepatitis B can not yet be considered a sexually transmitted disease.
Ways not to transmit hepatitis B
There are a large number of hepatitis B carriers in China, they live around everyone, and also in close contact with everyone, we need to interact, need to communicate, and hepatitis B carriers together whether to be infected with the hepatitis B virus? Of course not, the following behaviors will not cause the transmission of hepatitis B virus: 1.
1. Eating together. As already mentioned, the digestive tract cannot transmit hepatitis B. Eating together with a hepatitis B carrier certainly cannot transmit the hepatitis B virus. However, there are always some people in society who are “afraid” to exclude people who are known to be hepatitis B carriers.
2, shake hands with each other. Although hepatitis B virus markers may be detected in the sweat of hepatitis B carriers, it is still safe to shake hands. In fact, a healthy person’s hands can be contaminated with many kinds of microorganisms, and some people have found that as many as thousands of germs and viruses on their hands, but he will not develop. These germs and viruses are just “passing through”. Not germs, viruses fall on the hands will certainly develop, the body has its own resistance to disease, sweat also contains an acid. It is not conducive to the growth of germs and viruses. You have to pay attention to hand washing, it will not be a problem.
3, ceremonial kissing. The saliva of a hepatitis B carrier may contain the hepatitis B virus, but a ceremonial kiss does not stain the saliva and is a “dry kiss”, even if the mouth and lips touch each other, there is no problem. The mixture of saliva of lovers and lovers may have a certain effect on transmission, but it is not very significant in practice. Because the chances of contracting the hepatitis B virus from the mouth are small, many scholars have tested and proved that the hepatitis B virus is difficult to spread successfully in the mouth.
4.Hug each other. This is a common courtesy behavior, because there is no substantial contact, it is not possible to cause the transmission of hepatitis B virus. It is just that some people always feel that the other party is a hepatitis B carrier, psychologically difficult to accept it.
5, dancing. The fact that there may be hand-holding action when dancing together is not enough to constitute the transmission of hepatitis B virus. The actual fact is that in the dance floor, no one knows who the bottom line is, maybe your dance partner is a hepatitis B carrier. However, as soon as you know that the other party is a hepatitis B carrier, you will no longer want to dance with others to go. This is purely a spiritual role.
6, common games, travel. The reason is very simple, the virus in the body of hepatitis B carriers and each other no transmission channels, just general contact, how can make the hepatitis B virus into each other’s blood. The environment of nature is never a place to spread hepatitis B virus.
7, living in the same room. Students in a group dormitory, which has hepatitis B carriers, is not going to happen to spread each other, the hepatitis B virus can not survive and replicate in the air. Each germ and virus has its own unique transmission channel, the hepatitis B virus is mainly transmitted through the blood channel, not from the respiratory invasion of the human body, even if the other sneeze, or cough, can not constitute an infection.
8, the same classroom classes. This is also very safe, will not spread hepatitis B.