While the highest rate of hepatitis B in the developed world occurs in people between the ages of 20 and 49 years, anyone of any age, race, or sex can get the disease. Factors that may increase your risk of contracting hepatitis B include:
- Unprotected sex with more than one partner or with someone who is infected with HBV.
- Having a sexually transmitted disease such as gonorrhea or chlamydia.
- Intravenous drug use.
- Living with someone who has a chronic HBV infection.
- A healthcare job that exposes you to human blood.
- Hemodialysis for kidney failure.
- Traveling
to the certain regions of developing world including the Amazon basin,
Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan
- Being
an adolescent or young adult in a
- Being an infant born to a mother who is infected.