Can hepatitis B spread through share food and drink if virus load 10^8

General Discussion
1

My virus load Hepatitis B is 10^8, whether it can spread through share food and drink if i don’t have wound at mouth and gum?
Thanks you!

2

No. It can’t be spread to another person by sharing food or drink.

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3

According to a study posted on Pubmed there is a comment:

“Median HBV DNA levels in serum were 2.10 x 10(5) geq/ml and ranged from 373 genome equivalents per ml (geq/ml) to 4.13 x 10(9) geq/ml; median HBV DNA levels in saliva were 2.27 x 10(4) geq/ml and ranged from 373 geq/ml to 9.25 x 10(6) geq/ml. A clear correlation was shown between HBV DNA in serum and saliva; log HBV DNA in saliva=1.01 + 0.56 x (log HBV DNA in serum).”

So with a serum load of 10^8, the load in saliva is approximately 10^4 or 10^5, which is quite high. So what makes the virus in saliva unable to be transmitted when sharing food and drink?

Thanks

4

Hi Liam,

There hasn’t been any documented transmission event coming from sharing food and drink. The saliva not only needs to be exchanged, but also needs to reach the blood stream of someone to infect them, the volume of saliva for this to happen is way too high to be transferred by this method. You would really need to be trying.

Thomas