What Are The Symptoms?
Signs and symptoms of hepatitis B usually occur 9-21 weeks after exposure to the hepatitis B virus.1 Hepatitis B symptoms can range from mild to severe. The most common hepatitis B symptoms are:
- Tiredness
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea or feeling sick in your stomach
- Stomach pain
- Weight loss
- Yellow skin or yellowing of the whites of your eyes (jaundice)
- Dark coloured urine
- Clay or whitish coloured bowel movements
- Pain in your joints
However, it is also important to remember that nearly all infants and children, and 50% to 70% of people infected in adulthood,2 do not develop acute hepatitis B symptoms. The older you are, the more likely you are to have hepatitis B symptoms.
Even if you don’t have any symptoms, you can unknowingly pass the virus to others. The only way to be sure if you are infected is to have a hepatitis B blood test.
References
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/faqb.htm. Accessed 1 August 2007.
2 World Health Organization. Available at http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/CEDD5D4E-71BE-49F4-AEEC-1384751598EE/0/POA_HepB.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2007.
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/faqb.htm. Accessed 1 August 2007.
2 World Health Organization. Available at http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/CEDD5D4E-71BE-49F4-AEEC-1384751598EE/0/POA_HepB.pdf. Accessed 22 June 2007.
