Health Conditions

What are the symptoms?

Many individuals who contract HBV are not even aware that they have hepatitis because the symptoms may be so mild. The most common symptoms of hepatitis B are often mistaken for the flu and they may not be recognized because they may not appear until one to six months after becoming infected. Some of these symptoms may be:

• Fatigue (tiredness)
• Loss of appetite
• Mild fever
• Muscle or joint aches

Additional symptoms that may appear a few days after the initial symptoms include:

• Bitter taste in the mouth or bad breath
• Clay-colored (light) stools
• Confusion
• Dark urine
• Nausea and vomiting
• Pain on the right side below the ribs
• Widespread itching
• Yellow colored skin or white areas of eyes (jaundice)

The following symptoms of more serious liver damage may occur months to years later in individuals with chronic hepatitis B:

• Bruising easily or the appearance of spider veins-- broken blood vessels that form a tangled, spider-like appearance under the skin
• Changes in personality or behavior (an indicator of encephalopathy --a disease of the brain)
• Pain on the upper left side of stomach (due to an enlarged spleen)
• Red coloration of the palms of the hands
• Swelling of the legs and stomach (also called "ascites")
• Vomiting bright red blood or dark, grainy "coffee ground" material (as a result of bleeding from enlarged blood vessels in the esophagus and stomach)