{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]],"date-time":"2025-12-17T18:13:20Z","timestamp":1765995200681,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,2]],"date-time":"2023-08-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690934400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Italian Ministry of Health \u201cFondi Ricerca Corrente\u201d"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In Italy, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been characterized by several changes over the last five decades. In 2019, the incidence of acute HBV among subjects targeted by the vaccination campaign was 0 cases in the age group 0\u201314 years and 0.1\/100,000 in the age group 15\u201324. Nowadays, the burden of different stages of HBV-related chronic liver diseases is minimal. Intravenous drug use is no longer a risk factor (O.R. 0.7; 95% C.I. 0.5\u20131.02) for acquiring acute HBV; the proportion of cases reporting this exposure fell from 29.8% to 3.3% over the last two decades. The key public health intervention has been the compulsory vaccination campaign started in 1991 for infants 3 months old and 1\u20132 years old (the latter group for the first 12 years of the campaign). Moreover, non-immunogenic factors and the availability of effective oral antiviral drugs have played and continue to play a prominent role. The potential availability of new oral antiviral drugs with the inherent ability to eliminate the genomic HBV reservoirs may represent a further crucial step in the elimination of the virus in people that are already infected.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biology12081075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,2]],"date-time":"2023-08-02T11:04:38Z","timestamp":1690974278000},"page":"1075","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Five Decades of HBV Infection in Italy: A Continuous Challenge"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6285-0412","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tommaso","family":"Stroffolini","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Policlinico Umberto I, 00186 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giacomo","family":"Stroffolini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious-Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Via Don A. Sempreboni, 5, Negrar, 37024 Verona, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2023, July 07). 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