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Abstract
Worldwide, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the most common among those hepatitis viruses
that cause chronic infections of the liver in humans, and it represents a global public
health problem. Chronic hepatitis caused by HBV is the major cause of hepatocellular
carcinoma (HCC) worldwide, and remains therefore a major public health problem globally.
This fact is related to both the continuing occurrence of frequent new infections
and to the presence of a large reservoir of persons chronically infected, which may
develop severe and fatal complications of chronic liver disease. Hepatitis B and all
of the complications resulting from it, as well hepatitis D (HDV) and its complications,
are globally preventable by hepatitis B vaccination, and therefore elimination of
HBV transmission and of new acute and chronic infections is a feasible goal.