Does routine physical examination include five items of hepatitis B?

In most cases, the five items of hepatitis B are not required for routine physical examinations. They will only be arranged as additional items if individuals actively apply or have clear needs for screening.

Going forward more than ten years, the five hepatitis B tests were indeed the standard for all types of physical examinations. Later, in 2010, multiple national departments jointly issued regulations that explicitly prohibited the bundling of the five hepatitis B tests with routine physical examinations for admission and employment, in order to avoid unnecessary discrimination against hepatitis B. A while ago, I made an appointment for a physical examination for my cousin who had just graduated. The hepatitis B vaccine he received when he was a child was about to expire. He wanted to check whether his antibodies were sufficient. The front desk of the physical examination center repeatedly confirmed with him: This is an additional item at his own expense and is not included in the regular package purchased by the company. The final examination report will be packaged separately for him and will never be synchronized with the employer, for fear that the information will be leaked and cause trouble for him.

Nowadays, many people think that the five items of hepatitis B should be added to the routine physical examination, especially those who have hepatitis B carriers at home, or those who often eat out and are at risk of exposure. They feel that early detection and early reassurance can help. If the antibody titer is found to be insufficient and the vaccine is administered promptly, it is better to protect yourself. After all, if chronic hepatitis B infection is discovered late, it may develop into cirrhosis or even liver cancer. Early intervention has a much better prognosis. However, many experts in the field of public health also have concerns: After all, hepatitis B is only transmitted through blood, mother-to-child and sexual contact. It is not contagious at all when eating, working, or shaking hands together on a daily basis. Putting it in routine physical examinations may easily lead to privacy leaks. In the past few years, there have indeed been many cases of carriers being rejected or dismissed by their units because of leaked physical examination results. This will make many people fear routine physical examinations.

In fact, although the current routine physical examination packages do not include the five items of hepatitis B, they generally include liver function tests, which mainly look at alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, which are indicators that reflect liver cell damage. If there are unexplained abnormalities in liver function, the doctor will actively recommend that you do additional tests for viral hepatitis such as hepatitis B, hepatitis A, and hepatitis C, and will not directly prescribe hepatitis B-related tests.

If you really need screening, it is very convenient. Whether it is a physical examination center or the gastroenterology and infectious diseases department of a regular hospital, you can get the bill. It only costs a few dozen yuan to draw a tube of blood. If the result shows that there are no protective antibodies, you can go directly to the nearby community hospital to get the hepatitis B vaccine. You don’t have to wait for the physical examination to collect the items.