Epidemiology and modes of transmission of hepatitis B virus infection

	High	Intermediate	Low
Carrier rate	≥8%	2 to 7%	<2%
Geographic distribution	Parts of sub-Saharan Africa (eg, Western Africa, South Sudan)	Mediterranean basin; Eastern Europe; Central Asia; Southeast Asia; China; Japan; parts of Latin and South America (eg, Peru, Colombia); Middle East	United States; Canada; Western Europe; Mexico; Australia; New Zealand
Predominant age at infection	Perinatal and early childhood	Early childhood	Adult
Predominant mode of infection	Mother to child; percutaneous	Percutaneous; sexual	Percutaneous; sexual

For updated information on the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus infection, refer to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization websites.

References:

Ott JJ, Stevens GA, Groeger J, Wiersma ST. Global epidemiology of hepatitis B virus infection: New estimates of age-specific HBsAg seroprevalence and endemicity. Vaccine 2012; 30:2212.
Schweitzer A, Horn J, Mikolajczyk RT, et al. Estimations of worldwide prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus infection: A systematic review of data published between 1965 and 2013. Lancet 2015; 386:1546.
HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia: Annual Surveillance Report 2013. Sydney: The Kirby Institute, The University of New South Wales; 2013.
New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology. www.nzsg.org.nz/cms2/research/hepatitis/hepatitis b/ (accessed 12/31/2015).

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