Hepatitis B 2022 - acute and chronic
Annual Report on hepatitis B in Denmark 2022
In 2022, the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention received a total of 101 notifications of hepatitis B.
Acute hepatitis B
In 2022, the Department of Infectious Epidemiology and Prevention received ten notifications of acute hepatitis B (one woman and nine men). The median age was 42 years (range 21-73 years), Figure 1. Half of these individuals were of Danish origin, whereas the remaining were either born abroad or second-generation immigrants.
The majority were infected in Denmark, and the most frequently recorded mode of infection was by sexual transmission. This included both heterosexual transmission and transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM). Transmission in Denmark through intravenous drug use was also recorded.
Chronic hepatitis B
In 2022, the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention received 92 notifications of chronic hepatitis B; for comparison, a total of 116 cases were notified in 2021, Table 1.
The median age was 37 years (range 2-78 years), Figure 1. A total of 61 (66%) were women, Table 2. The median age for women was 35 years (range: 2-63 years); for men, it was 43 years (range 24-78 years).
Six individuals of Danish origin were notified with chronic hepatitis B in 2022. The remaining individuals, 86 (93%), were of non-Danish origin. The notified cases of non-Danish origin were distributed among a total of 31 different countries, 50% were from Asia, with the majority from China, 36% from Europe, with the majority from Rumania, and 14% were from Africa.
In total, 33 (54%) of the women were identified through the general screening of pregnant women. Three of the women were born in Denmark, including two second-generation immigrants and one had Danish origin. The remaining 30 women were born abroad, with 27 of them being assessed as infected at birth, whereas the remaining had an unknown source of infection.
This report is also described in EPI-NEWS no. 49a/2023.