- from an infected mother to a child;
- sexually during unprotected sexual intercourse;
- with saliva through a kiss, a toothbrush (with an active form of the disease, the hepatitis B virus can be contained in the saliva in sufficient quantities for infection), through an iron comb, scissors used by an infected person;
– menstrual, vaginal secretions and seminal fluid;
– as a result of repeated use of syringes and needles in medical institutions or among injection drug users.
In addition, infection can occur during medical procedures, tattooing, or the use of razor blades or similar items contaminated with infected blood. There are known cases of children becoming infected with the hepatitis B virus in a sandbox after being injected with a syringe that was previously used for injecting drugs
. The hepatitis B virus is not transmitted through ordinary household contacts - shaking hands, hugging, talking, sharing dishes, etc. with an infected person.
One of the most popular pediatricians in Ukraine, Yevgeny Komarovskyi, explains:
"Outrages about the necessity (vaccination against hepatitis) are appropriate for EVERYONE only up to a certain point. They are especially appropriate when the child is healthy, does not receive injections, does not treat the teeth, and does not drip anything into the vein. God forbid, don't think that I want to jinx... But it's impossible to live life and never get seriously ill - at the level of a hospital, with drips and injections. And even if dad is a doctor who won't let anyone near the child without a disposable syringe, who will give a guarantee that everything will be fine when dad is not around - when the ambulance takes him from the kindergarten, when the door is closed - in the operating room, in the intensive care ward etc. Let's hope that this bad fate will pass us by. But it is precisely in our country, where "everything is disposable" is only a theory, where the contingent of donors and the quality of drug research are not always at the highest level, where blood preparations, for example, interferon and gamma globulins, are prescribed more often than we would like... so, we need to vaccinate EVERYONE against hepatitis B!"
It is also important to understand that chronic infections develop in 80%-90% of infants infected with hepatitis B during the first year of life, and in 30%-50% of children infected with hepatitis B by the age of 6 years. Prolonged stay of the virus in liver cells can provoke the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer. Thus, children of the first year of life have the greatest risk of developing these fatal complications. That is why they should be vaccinated in time against this infection. That is, the vaccine against hepatitis B is, in fact, a vaccine that prevents cancer. Therefore, it is very important not to refuse to vaccinate the child against hepatitis B in the maternity hospital, as well as in the future.
Hepatitis B vaccine is absolutely safe. The technology of its production is such that it does not contain either a living or even a killed causative agent of the disease . The vaccine is produced using recombinant DNA technology. A plasmid containing the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) gene is inserted into common baker's yeast, which then produces HBsAg. HBsAg is collected and purified. This vaccine cannot cause infection with the hepatitis B virus (since this process does not produce potentially infectious viral DNA or whole viral particles), but it does produce lasting immunity against it . Intense local (redness, pain at the injection site) and general (increased body temperature) reactions are usually not recorded on the hepatitis B vaccine, and most often it is transferred "imperceptibly" to the child. After the introduction of mass immunization against hepatitis B, the incidence of acute forms in the world decreased 10 times.
Vaccination of children against hepatitis B is included in the national vaccination calendar and is carried out in communal medical institutions free of charge for the patient. Currently, EUVAX B vaccine (manufacturer: LG Life Sciences Ltd., South Korea) is available for the prevention of this disease in all regions of Ukraine . Hepatitis B vaccine Engerix-B (manufacturer: GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals S.A., Belgium) is also available in Ukraine for purchase at one's own expense. According to the National Vaccination Calendar, the child receives the first dose of hepatitis B vaccine on the first day of life in the maternity hospital. The second - at the age of 2 months, the third - at the age of 6 months. A 3 -dose course of vaccination provides stable lifelong immunity in 98-100% of the vaccinated.
In Ukraine, vaccination against hepatitis B became available for babies after 2001, so adults born earlier should be vaccinated.
Adults who want to be vaccinated against hepatitis can receive 3 doses of Engerix-B hepatitis B vaccine or the combined hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccine Twinrix.
At the moment, vaccination against hepatitis B for adults is not provided by the state budget, so for vaccination, you can make an appointment at a private medical facility or buy the vaccine yourself at a pharmacy and administer it at the medical facility where you are registered (or at the nearest outpatient clinic, if you are an internally displaced person). .