HBV is spread through sexual contact, via blood transfusions and shared needles, and can be passed from mother to child during pregnancy, labor or breastfeeding.
Hepatitis B can cause serious harm to an infected person’s liver, leading to death, cancer or scarring if left untreated. In some people, it simply goes away.
Today, Hepatitis B is a relatively rare disease in the developed world. According to the CDC, about 15,000 cases of HVB are reported in the United States each year. However, more than one million Americans are carriers of the virus.