Two billion people have been exposed to HBV and exhibit serological markers of past infection such as anti-HBc and/or anti-HBs. However, around 240 million suffer from chronic hepatitis B, as defined by the presence of serum HBsAg for longer than six months. In addition, a small proportion of patients exposed to HBV may harbor detectable viremia (serum HBV DNA) in the absence of HBsAg, which is named “occult hepatitis B”.
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