Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus. It is a major global health problem and the most serious type of viral hepatitis . It can cause chronic liver disease, chronic infection and puts people at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer.
A vaccine against hepatitis B has been available since 1982. Hepatitis B vaccine is 95% effective in preventing infection and its chronic consequences, and was the first vaccine against a major human cancer.
As of July 2011, 179 Member States vaccinate infants against hepatitis B as part of their vaccination schedules – a major increase compared with 31 countries in 1992, the year that the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to recommend global vaccination against hepatitis B.
WHO position papers
Last updated: 10 July 2013