Hepatitis B in the family: who needs testing?
When one person in a family tests positive for hepatitis B, two things usually happen — the family starts keeping separate plates, and nobody else gets tested. Both are the wrong way round.
How it does not spread
- Eating together, or sharing food, water and utensils
- Hugging, shaking hands, sitting together
- Coughing or sneezing
- Mosquito bites
Keeping a family member's plate separate does nothing except make them feel like an outcast in their own home.
How it does spread
- From mother to baby at the time of birth — the commonest route in India
- Blood: shared needles, unscreened transfusions, unsterile tattoo or piercing equipment
- Shared razors, blades and toothbrushes
- Unprotected sex
Who should be tested
- Husband or wife, and any sexual partner
- All children of a mother who is positive
- Brothers, sisters and parents living in the same house
- The test to ask for is HBsAg, along with anti-HBs to check if someone is already protected
Have a report you want looked at?
Send it on WhatsApp before you come. The clinic runs Monday to Saturday, 9 to 11 in the morning, in Vikaspuri.
Ask about hepatitis b This article is general information. It cannot replace an examination and your own reports. Please do not start or stop any medicine on your own.Read next
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