doi:10.1155/2012/317451 Review Article Deficient Knowledge on Hepatitis B Infection in Pregnant Women and Prevalence of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Carriage in an Endemic Area: A Review

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Hepatitis B infection is a major global health problem. Vertical transmission is the commonest route of spreading hepatitis B virus (HBV) in many endemic areas. In order to control such transmission in Hong Kong, neonatal immunization programme was implemented for more than two decades. A declining prevalence of HBV infection was expected. However, the prevalence remained unabated at around 10 % in recent studies. We suspect that one of the explanations of this persistent high prevalence is deficient knowledge on infection with the HBV and its prevention. Our paper gives an overview of the knowledge on HBV infection among Chinese population in both high and low endemic areas and discusses the potential factors that influenced the knowledge on as well as the implication of the sources of information for HBV infection, which was not addressed in previous studies. 1. Background Hepatitis B infection is a worldwide problem with over 350 million carriers [1]. Subjects with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are at increased risk of hepa-tocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis, and chronic hepatitis [2– 4]. Chronic infection with HBV is endemic in the Asia