Hepatitis B and Stigma

[adminhepbtrust]

Sadly most UK and NHS information on Hepatitis B is stigmatising and woefully out of date. To illustrate just how little for instance NHS choices or popular charities such as the Terrance Higgins Trust know about HBV patients we audited transmission information for a 1000 callers to the helpline in 2014. What we found out was more than 4 out 5 patients had been infected as children or via work/travel/retail industries such as contact sports, beauty shops and shared accommodations. This is why it is so sad that public bodies always say people get HBV from drugs and sex first, then from being unhygienic or foreign second, when the fact is most people with HBV in the UK got it from being children and the largest group diagnosed are completely innocent stunned young women having their first babies.