Risk factors of hepatitis B viral infection among women in Gaza city

Hepatitis B is a serious & common infectious disease of the liver, which is a major Public Health Problem, more than two billion alive individuals today have been infected with hepatitis B, and approximately 350 million are chronically infected and high risk for serious illness & death from liver cirrhosis & liver cancer which may be as complications from HBV infection, although 5-10% of adults infected with HBV will become chronic carriers, neonatal infection almost always leads to a chronic carrier state (90%) whereas 30-60% of children infected during the first five years of life will become chronic HBV carriers, It is transmitted horizontally by contact with blood or sexual contact & also transmitted vertically from mother to infant. Hepatitis B considered as one of the preventable infectious diseases by effective immunization program, in which the immunization consider the most important tool for hepatitis B prevention, which provide 95% of protection to neonates whose mother is a hepatitis B carrier that if given as soon as after delivery.