Traveler's Infections: Overview of Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Victor B. Oti

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Abstract: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a double-stranded circular DNA virus that infects the hepatocytes. HBV infection is considered as an important public health concern globally especially with one-third of the world's population been infected. Local and international migrants are one of those population at high risk of the infection. Many factors interplay in the acquisition of HBV such as purpose of travel, destination endemicity rate of the virus, time of stay of the traveler, inadequate prevention and control measures, among others, understanding the genotypes of HBV is critical in correlating the evolution of the virus and migration of humans and also treatment responses of infected population. The symptom of the virus ranges from fever to jaundice and to a liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Transmission of HBV is commonly via horizontal route in developing regions and in the developed regions; transmission occur more often among adults that use injectable drugs and high-risk sexual behaviors. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have recommended HBV screening and vaccination to all travelers without an HBV immunization history before traveling to endemic regions. This chapter gives an overview on HBV as a potential traveler's infection.

Keywords: hepatitis B virus; travelers; vaccination; genotypes; travel medicine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:211184

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.92174

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