Hepatitis B is spread when infectious body fluids (blood, saliva, semen and vaginal fluid) come into contact with body tissues beneath the skin.
In Australia the most likely ways people will have become infected are:
Mother-to-baby transmission at or around the time of birth, particularly for people born outside Australia in countries where hepatitis B is common, and in remote Aboriginal communitie
Child-to-child contact usually through contact between open sores or wounds, particularly for people born outside Australia in countries where hepatitis B is common, and in remote Aboriginal communities.
A contact is any person who has been close enough to an infected person to be at risk of having acquired the infection from that person.
Other ways of contracting hepatitis B include:
Sharing equipment used for injecting drugs
Unprotected sex (anal and vaginal)
Tattooing and body piercing with unsterilised equipment
Household contact including sharing razors, hair clippers and toothbrushes
Accidental needle stick or blood splash to broken skin or mucous membrane (the thin moist lining of many parts of the body such as the eyes, nose, mouth, throat and genitals).
The risk of spread is increased when there are higher levels of virus in the blood. The level of virus varies considerably between people infected with hepatitis B.
