I would get vaccinated for Hep B.  I work for a pharmaceutical company and they offer free Hep B vaccines to ALL employees.  Our safety person told us that Hep B can stay alive on a bandaid for up to five days.  Yuck!

I've read that hep b can stay alive, outside the body for upto 7 days.

I would definately get the vaccine. As for the kids drooling all over one another, I have never heard of it being contracted thru saliva so I think they are pretty safe. They certainly should get the vaccine, but I'm not sure of how that sorta stuff works in China.

Hope this helps and best wishes,

nirrti

Much like the reccomendation most HCV diagnosed people receive due to the fatal nature of a co-infection, I would suggest both a HAV and HBV vaccination.  As both have vaccinations, I would play it safe rather than be sorry.

Idont know what the protocol is in china but  in the usa children as soon as they are born recieve a hep b shot just a first in a series, i also work with  young children and just as an added benifit to you i would go ahead and get the hep b shots .

Excuse me for getting in but this helped me realize I think I actually KNOW where I got this disease!

In 1982 this grooss disgusting girl hit my friend in the face in a bar. OF course I've never been in a bar fight but I tried to get the girl off of her and she BIT ME on the finger. I am still scarred badly to this day.

We immediately put peroxide on it and I thought it would be better.

The very next day it was swollen three times the size of normal and turned GREY.  My mother rushed me to the doctor who sent me to an infectious disease doctor and he drew a line on my finger in sharpie and said "if it gets to here we will have to remove your finger". It was that deep and that infected that fast. It was not that far from the line AT ALL.

They gave me IV antibiotiics - then sent me home with scripts.

They taped my hand up over my heart onto my shoulder and we waited. Of course it turned out ok - or so I thought.

This girl was rancid - quite literally.  The doc told me he had NEVER in his life seen such bad infection from a human being bite in his life. And he was an infectious disease doctor.


I BET that is exactly how and where I got this!  I had never done IVDU yet - nor had any of my transfusions - and the timing lines up EXACTLY.  

It's amazing - one post just hit some nerve in my brain and it all clicked in. Of course I COULD have gotten it from a straw with drugs back then too...but I think in my gut that this is it.  Definite blood to blood infection possibilities here.

I know it doesn't matter but I always wanted to know.

Now when i look down at my pointer finger and see that scar...it freaks me out.

Thanks guys . anyone know what the chances of contracting HEPB from the bite?

I will definitely get a vaccine!

Ahhh, the good old days. Did this, by any chance happen in a bar around 168th and Amsterdam? I might have been there.

As a blood to blood transmited disease, I would think that the chances from a bite are slim unless the biter was bleeding and you came into contact with it with your open wound.

As goldyn pointed out, the USA protocol is for all children born since 1991 to receive the HBV vaccination as part of their regular schedule.  Whether that is true for China or not is something you may need to find out.  My suspicion is that it is not part of a schedule there, but I could be wrong.

from the center for disease control(CDC), here is the addy to the most frequently asked questions. It seems that in the acute stage, hep b is more contagious than hep c would be.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/faqb.htm

Yeah but it seems totally plausible to me - since she was in a bar fight with this other girl hitting each other in the face...it seems sort of logical that she could easily have been bleeding at the time in some manner.

I don't know but I'd forgotten all about it (especially since I was involved in the whole thing so little just trying to grab her off of my friend) but remembering the vicious infection and almost having my finger chopped off - and seeing how gross she was (yeah FL I think it WAS on Amsterdam in the 80s;)

Who knows but I think for now I'll blame it on her! ;)

I think you have the makings of a role-playing action game there.  The evil Lord Viral attempts to spread his inhuman poison to the alert, but unguarded human population.  Our heroine fights them off but succumbs to the poison anyway.  Armed with her Inter-ray Gun and smart-pills, she

NY says: "(The) infectious disease doctor ...  drew a line on my finger in sharpie and said "if it gets to here we will have to remove your finger"
------------
Yeah, that's one reasons guys get paranoid about getting their p*nis bitten during oral sex. LOL.



BTW I posted to you over in the Collodial Silver Thread

hi guys,

i do not mean to intrude, but i want to clarify a few important items about hep b (hbv).

1. the comment that this is a 'blood to blood' virus is incorrect.  hep b is DIFFERENT than hep c in that the hbv virus can be found at lower levels in bodily fluids such as saliva, semen, and vaginal fluids.  if you have been bitten by someone with hbv, the possibility remains that you may have been infected via saliva to blood contact.  let me follow that up by saying the chances are VERY small of that happening, especially if they bit through the jeans, and did not draw blood from your leg.

2. the comment that all newborns are given hbv antibody vaccine at birth is not entirely correct.  the hbv vaccine is highly recommended at birth, or as a part of a regular series, but is not required in the united states.  the controversy surrounding schools trying to mandate that children receive the vaccine is another story entirely.

3. go ahead and get the vaccine if it is available to you.  it will give you peace of mind as you work with the children.

4. if they bite you, bite them back.  they will never bite you again.


hope this helps,
leeac

I still don't understand how you fixed a time to your infection. What was it based on? Forgive me if you've posted this before... maybe I missed it.

-- Wondering Willie (The former, and reformed, Wandering Willie)

Thank you everyone for the support . I know that small traces of the infection cam be found in saliva . I think I've been worried that infected saliva could have contacted the bite wound  and possible transmitted hbv but I can see that this is a small chance . I also think that these days a lot of Chinese vaccinate their children . From what I read the vaccination here in China is cheaper than in the West due to no competition between pharmaceutical brands and bulk buying of the vaccine. I think that there has been a great decrease in hbv here in children due to national vaccine programes.

What annoys me is that when I went to my doctor in the UK they did not even suggest I should consider the hbv vaccine whilst working in China . Anyway I'll get it sorted .