Hepatitis B Virus Studies

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infects the liver and, when it persists as chronic infection, substantially raises the risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma — one of the most lethal and difficult-to-treat cancers worldwide. Despite the existence of an effective preventive vaccine and antiviral therapies capable of suppressing viral replication, an estimated 250–300 million people carry chronic HBV infection, and hundreds of thousands die annually from its complications, with the burden falling disproportionately on sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. Epidemiologists in this area work to map transmission patterns, quantify the gap between infection prevalence and diagnosis rates, and evaluate how vaccination programs and treatment scale-up are reshaping disease trajectories across different populations. Key open questions include why current antivirals rarely achieve a functional cure, how to better identify individuals at highest risk of progressing to liver cancer, and what combination of policy and clinical strategies can close the remaining gaps in prevention and care globally.

Works

156,215

Total citations

1,969,423

Keywords

Hepatitis B VirusChronic Hepatitis BViral HepatitisHBV InfectionHepatocellular CarcinomaAntiviral Therapy