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Minnesota Perinatal Hepatitis B Program and Statistics
We implemented a perinatal hepatitis B prevention program in 1990. Our goal is to identify and treat infants born to hepatitis B-positive people in an effort to prevent perinatally acquired infection. The benefits of this cost-effective strategy are preventing potential long-term health consequences for the child and eliminating a potential source of infection to others in the future.
The program provides case management to infants born to hepatitis B positive people. Of these infants, over 99% received treatment (consisting of vaccine and hepatitis B immune globulin) at birth.
Hepatitis B is transmitted very efficiently from an infected birthing parent to the infant at birth. If infected, up to 90% of babies will develop chronic hepatitis B infection which can lead to liver damage, liver failure, liver cancer and even death. Treatment initiated within 12 hours after birth is up to 94% effective at preventing this serious infection. Prevention efforts depend upon maintaining high treatment rates.
| Year | Number of infants born to hepatitis B-positive people in MN | Number of infants identified as hepatitis B-positive during reporting year |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 443 | 0 |
| 2015 | 409 | 3 |
| 2016 | 428 | 1 |
| 2017 | 413 | 0 |
| 2018 | 375 | 0 |
| 2019 | 388 | 0 |
| 2020 | 345 | 0 |
| 2021 | 327 | 0 |
| 2022 | 318 | 2 |
| 2023 | 333 | 0 |
| 2024 | 280 | 0 |
Annual Summary Statistics
- Hepatitis: Annual Summary of Reportable Diseases
The Minnesota Department of Health collects information on infectious diseases for the purposes of determining disease impact, assessing trends in disease occurrence, characterizing affected populations, prioritizing control efforts, and evaluating prevention strategies, and reports statistics annually. Reports are available for some reportable communicable diseases going back to 1997.