November 1, 2019

High tolerance of hepatitis B virus to thermal disinfection

Authors

A König, TT Than, D Todt, S Kew Yoon, J Steinmann, E Steinmann, M Windisch

Bibliography

Journal of Hepatology | Published online: September 04, 2019 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2019.08.022

Abstract
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a severe global health burden, with approximately 2 billion infected individuals and more than 250 million carriers worldwide. Despite the availability of vaccines and therapeutics, chronic hepatitis B remains incurable. The virus is highly contagious and can circulate with 10^8 to 10^10 infectious particles in a patient’s blood. Because HBV has a very low minimal infectious dose of only 10 genomes, the transmission from only trace amounts of blood pose a serious risk for infection.