Extremely resistant to environmental influences What makes hepatitis B so dangerous

Stable Pathogen: Why Hepatitis B is so dangerous

Hepatitis B is one of the most common infectious diseases. The hepatitis B virus can cause both an acute and a chronic liver disease. The problem is that the dangerous pathogen is extremely resistant to environmental influences.

Almost 300 million people worldwide are infected

Humanity has been plaguing humanity for millennia: Researchers at the University of Kiel have recently found a strain of ancient hepatitis B viruses in studies of 7,000-year-old skeletons. Today, around 290 million people worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus. This makes hepatitis B one of the most widespread infectious diseases. The pathogen can cause both an acute and a chronic liver disease. Due to the consequences of serious liver disease, the virus costs many people their lives every year.

Since hepatitis B is transmitted mainly in blood contact, the disease is actually well controlled by appropriate hygiene measures with hand disinfectants. Nevertheless, there are always infections in hospitals. (Image: Alexander Raths / fotolia.com)

Again and again infections

Hepatitis B viruses (HBV) are contagious at room temperature for weeks and even defy the cold at four degrees Celsius over nine months, reports the Ruhr University Bochum in a statement.

Hepatitis B is mainly transmitted when there is blood contact.

"It should be manageable with suitable hygiene measures", says Prof. Dr. med. Eike Steinmann from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at RUB.

But it happens again and again that people in the hospital or in professional situations get infected with the hepatitis B virus.

In search of the reasons for this, researchers have so far had to resort to the duck hepatitis B virus, a relative of the human virus.

"However, these studies allow only limited reliable estimates of the infectivity of HBV," explains Steinmann.

The scientist and his colleagues have now used a HBV infection system in human liver cells recently developed at the Institute Pasteur Korea in Seoul for their investigations in order to arrive at realistic results.

Common hand disinfectants work

With this model, the researchers were able to show that HBV hardly loses infectiousness at room temperature after weeks and is very stable even at four degrees Celsius over nine months.

"Different types of alcohol and commercially available hand sanitizers inactivate the viruses," says Eike Steinmann.

However, dilution of the disinfectants overruled the inactivating activity. Fortunately, diluting disinfectants is very uncommon in practice. "

The researchers advise to strictly adhere to hygiene guidelines in order to prevent future infections with HBV.

The results of the experts were published in the journal "Journal of Infectious Diseases". (Ad)