Hepatitis B is a disease caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) which infects the liver of hominoidae, including humans, and causes an inflammation called hepatitis. Originally known as “serum hepatitis”, the disease has caused epidemics in parts of Asia and Africa, and it is endemic in China. About a third of the world’s population, more than 2 billion people, have been infected with the hepatitis B virus. Transmission of hepatitis B virus results from exposure to infectious blood or body fluids containing blood.

Worldwide, there are about 350 million people who are infected with chronic hepatitis B virus. About 78 percent, or 275 million people, of those individuals reside in Asia or the Pacific Islands, according to Stanford University’s Asian Liver Center.

Although Hepatitis B isn’t one of the leading diseases in America as a whole, it is one of 5 most chronic and fatal diseases for Asian Americans in the States, along with cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, (see AAHI packet)

The lack of awareness and exposure of this disease has led Hepatitis B to become a huge issue in the Asian American community.