Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jun;50(2):349-361.
doi: 10.1016/j.ogc.2023.02.007. Epub 2023 Apr 4.

Prevention of Perinatal Hepatitis B Transmission

David M Higgins  1 , Sean T O'Leary  2
Affiliations
Review

Prevention of Perinatal Hepatitis B Transmission

David M Higgins et al. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is efficiently transmitted to newborn infants in the perinatal period and can lead to chronic infection, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death. Despite the availability of effective prevention measures necessary to eliminate perinatal HBV transmission, significant gaps remain in the implementation of these prevention measures. All clinicians who care for pregnant persons and their newborn infants need to know the key prevention measures including (1) identification of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive pregnant persons, (2) antiviral treatment of HBsAg-positive pregnant persons with high viral loads, (3) timely postexposure prophylaxis of infants born to HBsAg-positive persons, (4) and timely universal vaccination of newborn infants.

Keywords: Hepatitis B; Perinatal; Postexposure prophylaxis; Prevention; Vaccination.

PubMed Disclaimer

Substances