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BackEntry title:

Hepatitis B WHO target for the percentage of infants born to mothers with hepatitis B virus testing positive

Last updated on Thursday, 20 November 2025 at 03:54pm

Summary

Topic
Hepatitis-B
Category
API name
hepatitis-b_testing_motherToChildTransmissionRateTargetWHO

Rationale

This metric shows the WHO target of all eligible infants born to mothers with hepatitis B virus testing positive for hepatitis B virus in England.

Definition

The WHO target is for less than 2% of children born to mothers living with hepatitis B to be hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive when tested at around 12 months of age.

Methodology

The target comes from the WHO Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis (2022-2030). National data are compared to this target to measure progress in preventing transmission from mothers to babies.

Caveats

The WHO target is global and may be measured differently from national indicators. Results depend on full participation in testing and follow up. Small numbers of cases can lead to large percentage changes.