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Acute: Acute hepatitis B lasts less than six months. If the infection is acute, the body's immune system is able to destroy the virus, and the patient should recover completely within a few months. Most patients who acquire HBV as adults are able to eradicate the infection. Chronic: Chronic hepatitis B lasts six months or longer. The infection is chronic when the immune system is unable to fight off the virus. The infection may become life long and can potentially cause serious complications, such as cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver failure and death. Infants and many children between the ages of one and five become chronically infected. Chronic infection may go undetected for years, and possibly even decades. In most chronic cases, the individuals are unaware of the infection until a serious liver complication develops.
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