1. Why is Hepatitis B important?

What I want to do in this short talk is to tell you why hepatitis B is still important. And the reason I say still important is because we’re all kind of flooded with information about hepatitis C and HIV. Although hepatitis B was kind of the headline story maybe fifteen or twenty years ago, as hepatitis C has risen in not just prominence, but in probably a broader spectrum of the American population is infected with hepatitis C than with hepatitis B. As you’ll see, there are particular groups of people in the United States who seem to be more likely to be infected with hepatitis B, whereas hepatitis C has a big behavioral element and behavioral element crosses all parts of the population.