High tolerance of hepatitis B virus to thermal disinfection

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a severe global health burden, with approximately 2 billion infected individuals and more than 250 million carriers worldwide. Despite the availability of vaccines and therapeutics, chronic hepatitis B remains incurable. The virus is highly contagious and can circulate with 10^8 to 10^10 infectious particles in a patient’s blood. Because HBV has a very low minimal infectious dose of only 10 genomes, the transmission from only trace amounts of blood pose a serious risk for infection.