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Hardly a day passes that law enforcement personnel do not come in contact with crime victims and suspects who are infected with hepatits B.
Hepatitis B may cause infection in as many as one of three exposures. The virus attacks the liver and the disease is widespread, with more than 300,000 people in the United States becoming infected every year. Many of them become seriously ill, and some even die.
Hepatitis B is spread primarily through blood and body fluids that contain blood. While on duty, an officer could contract the disease through accidental needle sticks, while searching a suspect, car or residence. Transmission may also occur through open wounds or breaks in the skin, or through splashes of body fluids to mucous membranes.
Once inside the body, the hepatitis B virus infects the liver. The liver's ability to clean the blood of toxic materials, to produce a variety of necessary chemicals for the body, and to store and release...