Read condition-specific symptoms and clinical context for Hepatitis B virus. A liver virus that can become a long-term, often silent infection.
Hepatitis B infects the liver and can be acute or chronic. WHO describes spread through contact with infected blood and body fluids, unsafe injections and sharps exposures, and most commonly from mother to child at birth or in early childhood in high-burden areas. Chronic infection raises the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer, and a safe vaccine offers close to complete protection.
CDC states that when symptoms occur with an acute infection they can appear any time between 8 weeks and 5 months after exposure, usually lasting several weeks. Up to half of older children, adolescents and adults have symptoms, while most children under 5 have none.
Possible symptoms: Yellow skin or eyes (jaundice); Dark urine or clay-coloured stools; Feeling tired; Fever; Loss of appetite; Nausea, stomach pain or vomiting; Joint pain.
WHO notes that severe acute hepatitis can lead to liver failure and death, although most people recover from the acute illness. CDC advises testing, because many people have no symptoms and can still pass the virus on.
CDC states that many people with chronic hepatitis B have no symptoms and do not know they are infected, and that symptoms can take decades to develop.
No separate symptom list is shown for chronic hepatitis B. CDC states that symptoms of chronic infection can take decades to develop and may resemble those of an acute infection, and that testing rather than symptoms is how the infection is found. WHO adds that some people with chronic hepatitis B develop progressive liver disease with complications such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Long-term infection is followed with clinical testing and monitoring. Nothing on this page can tell an individual whether an infection has become chronic.
Source check: 2026-09-19. Educational content; independent scientific review remains pending.