Abstract

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that is an important cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The World Health Organization estimates that about two billion people have been infected and 350 million are chronic carriers. Between 1991 and 2001, just over 6000 hepatitis B notifications per year were reported to the Australian health system, including an average of 250 per year which were identified as incident cases. Approximately half of all cases notified, and a quarter of incident cases, were resident in New South Wales.