Research advances of hepatitis B virus transmission through tears

Abstract

China has a large number of Hepatitis B virus carriers. Though hematogenous dissemination is the main transmission route, much remains unknown about the way the virus spreads. It is doubted that people may get the disease through various body fluids in daily activity. Some routine examinations in ophthalmology department such as Goldmann applanation tonometry could not avoid contact with patients' ocular surface and may cause virus spread due to the residual tears on the instrument. So it is quite necessary to inspect the tear infectiousness of Hepatitis B virus. This review summarized recent studies about hepatitis B virus transmission via tears.

Keywords

• hepatitis B virus
• tears
• iatrogenic infection
• contact inspections
• contact inspections