What Are The Chances Of Hepatitis B Being Transmitted During Unprotected Heterosexual Sex ?

Posted on Sat, 22 Jun 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 Answered on

Sat, 13 Jul 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : What are the chances of hepatitis b being transmitted during unprotected heterosexual sex ?

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (2 hours later)

Hello,
Thanks for the query.
Although your question is very straight but the answer is not easy to give since you simply can not put any number to it.
The fact is that HEPATITIS B is a very infectious disease and blood and other body fluids like semen and vaginal secretions have plenty of virus in them.
Even an oral sex can transmit it.
Other modes of transmission could be...
Sharing needles,toothbrushes,razors etc.
The virus is not passed by shaking hands,kissing,hugging or sharing utensils etc.
After an infection,9 out of 10 cases clear the infection of their own by their immune system while only one develops long term infection,called as chronic hepatitis B.
I hope it helps however you may revert to me for any other specific query on this issue.
Best of luck
Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar