Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a liver infection. It is passed on during sex, especially if you don’t use condoms. It’s also spread through blood. You can get an injection that will prevent infection with this STI. That’s called vaccination. If you have hepatitis B, you can get medication to limit the effects of the disease on your body.

Vaccinated african american man showing his arm against yellow background

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms often don’t appear until a couple of months after you’ve had sex. You might then have:

Tiredness
Fever
Nausea
Stomach aches
Muscle aches
Pain in your bones
Marks on your skin
Jaundice – when your skin and the whites of your eyes turn yellow

Treatment

Hepatitis B usually goes away by itself. Then you won’t need any treatment.
But sometimes it doesn’t. The virus stays in your body. That’s called chronic hepatitis B. What happens then?

You can get treatment in hospital that stops the infection from doing any more damage
People you regularly have sex with, and the people you live with, should get vaccinated. Then they cannot get infected with the STI

Vaccination against hepatitis B

As part of childhood vaccinations, children in Curaçao are offered vaccination against hepatitis B. This offers lifelong protection. If you have not received the hepatitis b vaccine or would like to learn more about it, contact CSGC.

You can also get vaccinated if you have an increased chance of getting this STI. For example:

If you regularly have sex with someone who has hepatitis B
If you are a man who has sex with other men. Anal sex increases the chance of hepatitis B

The Center for Sexual Health Curaçao (CSGC) provide this vaccine. The total cost is 90 guilders. It requires 3 doses of the vaccine over a 6-month period. Contact CSGC for more information.