Why This Matters
Chronic hepatitis B infects an estimated 250 to 300 million people worldwide, including approximately 1.9 million Americans. For most of those people, treatment means a lifelong commitment to antiviral medication that suppresses the virus but rarely eliminates it. Stop the drug, and the virus rebounds. The disease persists, and over decades, it silently causes cirrhosis and liver cancer in a significant proportion of patients.
