India's hepatitis B numbers are larger than most people realise
The World Health Organization estimates that India has approximately 40 million people living with chronic hepatitis B infection, roughly 3 to 4 percent of the population. That figure makes India one of the highest-burden countries in the world, sitting alongside sub-Saharan Africa in terms of sheer scale. A 2019 seroprevalence analysis published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research found HBsAg prevalence varying between 1.1 percent in some northern states and 4.4 percent in parts of the northeast, confirming that the burden is not evenly distributed and that geography shapes risk in ways most national campaigns miss.
