An expert has stated in this month's BMJ that UK travellers are highly susceptible to the Hepatitis B infection. The reason he states, is the lack of regularisation by the authorities to introduce a mandatory immunisation during birth.

UK is one of the very few developed countries in the world who haven't introduced Hepatitis B immunisation during the infant stage. A global call from WHO to have the vaccination done has been ignored since 1997.

The reason behind non-immunisation is attributed to a number of cases of the disease in the country when compared with others.

In the past year, a total of around 1,80,000 cases were reported. It was also reported that 24% of travellers to a hepatitis B endemic country were contracted with the disease. Here's a small stat that should throw more light on the reason for getting affected: 8% of UK travellers had sex with a person they met in that country (Zuckerman 2006). These figures should be sufficient for the government to introduce mandatory vaccination for the disease.

It is common these days for people to travel outside UK to take part in adventure holidays or contact sports, which increases the chance of them requiring medical treatment if hurt; which in turn could expose them to the infection. Medical facilities in developing nations are usually poor and treatments with sterlised equipments are usually unheard of. This could put the traveller at a significant risk. A dosage of the vaccination could just be the saving grace that one could be looking for.

Hope that the authorities would wake up soon.