Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Hepatitis B
Who is at risk for hepatitis B?
- Health-care workers and students
- Infants born to infected mothers
- Children in specific situations such as:
– Children below age 7 whose families have immigrated to Canada from areas where there is a high prevalence of hepatitis B and who may be exposed to hepatitis B through their extended families – Children in child-care settings in which there may be a child infected with hepatitis B
- Heterosexual males or females with multiple sexual partners or with a history of sexually transmitted diseases
- Sexually active homosexual or bisexual men
- Users of illicit injectable drugs
- Hemophiliac patients and others receiving repeated infusions of blood or blood products
- Patients requiring hemodialysis
- Staff and inmates of long-term correctional facilities
- Household and sexual contacts of hepatitis B carriers
- Populations or communities where hepatitis B is often found
- International travelers who will be staying 6 months or longer in areas of high incidence of hepatitis B
- Residents and staff of institutions for the developmentally challenged
- Persons with occupational risk of infection, through exposure to blood or blood-contaminated products, such as morticians and embalmers
