Sexually Transmitted Disease
The Child Abuse Team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center provides the following table as a guide for health care professionals in interpreting laboratory test results for Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).
| Infection Sites | Causes systemic illness |
Incubation Period
and Symptoms | Some children will have no symptoms. Others will have loss of appetite, stomach pain and jaundice. Infection can cause death. The incubation period is 45 to 160 days after contact. |
| Transmission | Perinatal transmission occurs if the mother is infectious. Both sexual and non-sexual transmission occurs. Children who live with HBV carriers are at risk, as are children who live in institutions for the developmentally disabled. Infection is transmitted through infected blood, wound secretions, semen, cervical secretions and saliva. |
| Diagnostic Tests | The diagnosis is made from serologic blood tests. Vaccination is recommended for all children. It is 90 percent to 95 percent effective in preventing infection. |
