IDSA: More Than Half of Children Under 5 Exposed to Hep B Exposed Via Household Contact

MONDAY, Oct. 26, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- More than half of children younger than 5 years exposed to hepatitis B virus (HBV) are exposed by someone in their household other than their birth mother, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDWeek), held from Oct. 21 to 24 in Washington, D.C.Karen Jacobson, M.D., M.P.H., from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Pleasanton, California, and colleagues examined the HBV status of household contacts of young children in Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) in a retrospective cohort study including KPNC members aged younger than 5 years on June 16, 2023. A total of 158,169 children younger than 5 years living in 131,800 households with at least one additional KPNC member were identified.Of the households, 1,689 included a person with active HBV; 2,024 children (1.3 percent) lived in a household with a person with active HBV. The researchers found that 41.8 and 58.2 percent of the 2,024 exposed children were birth-exposed and household-exposed, respectively. Compared with HBV-positive mothers, nonmaternal HBV-positive household contacts were older (44 versus 38 years); 76.5 percent were male. All birth-exposed children received HBV vaccination within seven days of birth compared with 93.5 and 86.7 percent of household-exposed and unexposed children, respectively."A child can be exposed to hepatitis B from anyone with an active infection, not just their mother," Jacobson said in a statement. "No one knows the status of everyone a child may come into contact with, and vaccinating infants at birth protects against known and unknown potential sources of transmission. The hepatitis B vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect against HBV infection."Press ReleaseMore Information.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

IDSA: More Than Half of Children Under 5 Exposed to Hep B Exposed Via Household Contact

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