Table 1.

Key characteristics of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV infection, including epidemiology, clinical manifestations, biomarkers, routes of transmission, prevention, and treatment.

Characteristics		Hepatitis B virus (HBV)	Hepatitis C virus (HCV)	HIV
Estimates of epidemiology and burden
	Prevalence (millions of infections)	257	71	33
	Annual mortality (millions of deaths)	0.887	0.399	1.341
Clinical manifestations
	Clinical manifestations of new infections	Acute hepatitis (uncommon in <5 years, 50% of new infections among persons aged ≥5 years)	Acute hepatitis (<20% of new infections)	Nonspecific clinical manifestations of acute HIV infection
	Spontaneous clearance of infection	80%-95% of new infections	20% of new infections	None
	Long-term complications	Cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma	Cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma	Chronic infection leading to immune suppression (AIDSa)
Biomarkers
	New/recent infection	IgM anti-HBcb	Nonec	Some options available with nucleic acid testing or “recency” serological tests
	Past or present infection	Total anti-HBc	Anti-HCV	Anti-HIV
	Present infection	HBsAgd	HCV RNAe or HCV core antigen	Anti-HIV
Routes of transmission
	Perinatal	Delivery and uncommonly, before birth	Uncommonf	Before, during, and after birth
	Sexual	++g	+/−g Common in HIV-infected men who have sex with men	+++
	Blood-borne	++++	+++	++
	Vaccine	Yes	No	No
Approach to prevention
	Mother-to-child transmission	Universal immunization of infants, starting at birth +/− HBIgh +/− antivirals during pregnancy	Cure mothers before pregnancy	Test and treat
	Prevention of other new infections	Universal immunization, safe injection practices, infection control, blood safety, and safe sex	Safe injection practices, infection control, blood safety, and safe sex	Safe sex, voluntary surgical male circumcision, safe injection practices, infection control, blood safety, preexposure prophylaxis
Treatment		Lifelong treatment with nucleos(t)ides analogues	Treatment available leading to cure after short course	Lifelong treatment with a combination of medicines

^aAIDS: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

^bAnti-HBc: antibody to the hepatitis B core antigen.

^cRNA or core antigen positive in the absence of anti-HCV suggests recent HCV infection.

^dHBsAg: hepatitis B surface antigen.

^eRNA: ribonucleic acid.

^fRisk of mother-to-child transmission is higher among HIV-infected pregnant women.

^gsymbol +/- and + quantifies the importance of transmission.

^hHBIg: Hepatitis B immune globulin.