5. Why do Asians have high rates of HBV?

Now Asians have very high rates of chronic hepatitis B because many became infected at birth or early childhood. So this is the infection. The earlier you get infected the more likely you lose the battle and become chronically infected. So for a newborn, you know the risk is as high as ninety percent if the mother has the infection and passes it on to the baby during the birthing process. It is not a hereditary disease. It is a disease which is passed to the newborn most of the time at the time of birth. And then the risk is still high in young children and drops to about ten percent in children over the age of six. But this could all be prevented with three shots and it will protect you and you are okay for life. So even if the newborn is born to a mother who has chronic hepatitis B, as long as the newborn gets the first dose of the hep B vaccine at birth (you usually give it into the muscle) then there is protection. It is likely that it will protect the newborn ninety-five percent of the time. Now don’t give the vaccine in the fat, in the buttocks. It doesn’t work. The vaccine only works if you give it intra-muscular.