Q. What is the chance of spread of hepatitis B through food contaminated with blood?
Hello doctor, Is there any chance of hepatitis B spread through eating food contaminated with infected blood?
Hello. Well, the whole blood and serum (white fluid within blood) contains large amount of virus, and virus can live on blood spots outside the human body for the duration of one week. So actually it depends upon how much blood, and how much time it has been on the stain that can determine the chances of acquiring infection if contaminated with food. So I guess my answer can be partially answering your query. If you tell me the exact event I may be in a better position to tell you the figures. Otherwise, as a general rule, hepatitis B does not spread via food, having said that, it can still spread if blood contaminated food has been ingested. Since virus invades the human body when comes in close to mucosa (lining of our mouth) and then spread to blood within human. This happens in the same way as one infected person can transmit infection via kissing, hugging, sharing of a towel, spoon, plates, and so on. If you are puzzled with all that information, I want you to simply get a blood test for hepatitis B infection. It is a simple blood test that can give us a clue. I hope this helps. Post-exposure risk stratification. Hepatitis B surface antigen. Hepatitis B core total. Follow up after testing.