Hepatitis B is a serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the liver. The virus, which is called hepatitis B virus (HBV), can cause lifelong infection, cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure, and death. Approximately 200,000 new HBV infections in the United States each year, approximately half are transmitted through sexual intercourse. Preliminary data from a large U.S. multisite study indicate that approximately one third of persons with acute hepatitis B virus infections in 1995 had a history of another STD¹In the United States, the most common way people get infected with hepatitis B that attacks liver, or spread is through having unprotected sex with a person who has the disease. By sharing drugs, needles or from an infected mother to her baby during birth. In fact, up to one in every 50 people living in the United States will become infected with the hepatitis B virus - and the risk of infection is greater among people who have unprotected sex or inje