{"id":607892,"date":"2026-08-29T03:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607892\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:16:16","slug":"what-is-hepatitis-b-the-viral-infection-1-in-20-hongkongers-has-with-many-unaware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607892\/","title":{"rendered":"What is hepatitis B? The viral infection 1 in 20 Hongkongers has, with many unaware"},"content":{"rendered":"

David, who is in his forties and works in finance in Hong Kong, does not remember a life without hepatitis B, a viral infection of the liver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been a \u2026 carrier for as long as I can remember,\u201d he says. \u201cI found out early on as a child since I was born with it \u2013 my mother is a carrier, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

David\u2019s experience is far from unusual in Hong Kong. According to Dr Loey Mak Lung-yi, a specialist in gastroenterology and hepatology, mother-to-child transmissions account for more than 90 per cent of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) cases in the city.<\/p>\n

About 410,000 people in Hong Kong have hepatitis B, according to the government\u2019s Viral Hepatitis Action Plan. Alarmingly, 40 per cent are completely unaware<\/a> of their infection and 70 per cent are not receiving appropriate medical follow-up care.<\/p>\n

Or as Hong Kong-based general practitioner Dr Wong Sze-man puts it: \u201cWhen you take transport during rush hour and see 20 people, one of them is infected and is a silent carrier of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Wong Sze-man is a Hong Kong-based general practitioner. Photo: Marina Medical Clinic<\/p>\n

The fact that so many people living with chronic hepatitis B infection are unaware of the condition puts David \u2013 who has known his hepatitis status his whole life \u2013 in an ironically fortunate position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David, who is in his forties and works in finance in Hong Kong, does not remember a life…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[257477,257475,257479,257480,103,14788,27542,14789,240,61,60,257478,14795,257476,257484,257481,212772,257483,257482],"class_list":["post-607892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-baruch-blumberg","tag-district-health-centres","tag-dr-loey-mak-lung-yi","tag-dr-wong-sze-man","tag-health","tag-hepatitis","tag-hepatitis-b","tag-hepatitis-c","tag-hong-kong","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irving-millman","tag-liver-cancer","tag-liver-foundation","tag-mario-rizzetto","tag-michael-houghton","tag-mother-to-child-transmission","tag-stephen-feinstone","tag-world-hepatitis-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}