According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1.5 to 2 million Americans are infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Prior studies have shown there to be significant racial differences in access to and outcomes of liver transplantation. Recently, doctors from across the U.S. conducted a multicenter retrospective-prospective study of the waitlist status and outcomes of liver transplant patients with HBV infection.

All countries should offer universal infant immunization for hepatitis B, write Dr. Christopher Mackie from McMaster University and coauthors in a public health analysis.

CDC reports that failures to follow infection practices have placed more than 60,000 patients at risk for Hepatitis B and C.

The majority of children vaccinated against hepatitis B are not at an increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study to be published in the October 8, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

HBV infection may lead to acute liver disease, chronic active hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Over 350 million people worldwide are estimated to be infected chronically by HBV and are therefore at risk of liver failure, cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma.

Patients with hepatitis B who did not respond to lamivudine therapy had a better virological response after switching to entecavir for a year. Continuing the drug for an additional year led to even more clinical improvement without significant side effects, according to a new study in the July issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Genotype D is found to be the only detected type in different clinical forms of HBV infections, including cirrhosis, among residents of southwestern Iran. A significant association between the presence of anti-HBe antibody and increasing ALT levels among either HBeAg-negative or HBeAg-positive individuals was also determined.

New BARACLUDE (entecavir) data presented today demonstrated a continued low incidence of resistance in nucleoside-naпve patients through five years of treatment. In the nucleoside-naпve chronic hepatitis B patients analyzed, no additional patient developed resistance in the fifth year (n=108).

A significant drop in abnormal Pap test results happened after girls and women were given a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, according to a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Lamivudine is an effective antiviral agent for treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B and advanced liver diseases.

The failure of the UK to introduce universal hepatitis B immunisation means that most UK citizens are susceptible to infection, warns an infectious diseases expert in this week’s BMJ.

One in four people who are chronically infected with hepatitis B will die from its impact if untreated, but a team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has identified the most cost-effective way of fighting this treacherous infection.