World Wide Web hepatitis B virus resources

Background: Hepatitis B virus infection is a global public health issue, often under-discussed due to social prejudices related to its mode of transmission. The World Wide Web, an increasingly popular means of dissemination of health-related information, can serve continuing medical practitioner awareness and enhance public health literacy. Objective: The authors sought to investigate the existence of, and evaluate the content of websites offering information on hepatitis B. Study design: Sites were selected by certain criteria (sponsor, language options, free access, validation of content by independent medical and non-medical personnel), which unavoidably rendered the lists subjective. Results: At least three medical personnel-oriented websites (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Clinical Care Options and The Hepatitis B Foundation sites) offer significant, up to date information on hepatitis B for clinicians. Sites offering information for the public used simple patterns as fact sheets and question-answer sets. The majority of the sites were based in the US. Conclusions: Hepatitis B virus infection is adequately represented in the web, regarding the needs of medical practitioners. Dissemination of information for the public appears in various modes, and at least at present, can only safely be achieved through simplified reports on the disease. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.