David, who is in his forties and works in finance in Hong Kong, does not remember a life without hepatitis B, a viral infection of the liver.
“I have been a … carrier for as long as I can remember,” he says. “I found out early on as a child since I was born with it – my mother is a carrier, too.”
David’s experience is far from unusual in Hong Kong. According to Dr Loey Mak Lung-yi, a specialist in gastroenterology and hepatology, mother-to-child transmissions account for more than 90 per cent of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) cases in the city.
Or as Hong Kong-based general practitioner Dr Wong Sze-man puts it: “When you take transport during rush hour and see 20 people, one of them is infected and is a silent carrier of the virus.”
The fact that so many people living with chronic hepatitis B infection are unaware of the condition puts David – who has known his hepatitis status his whole life – in an ironically fortunate position.