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It is estimated 0.7 per cent of the UK population or around 441,000, have the virus which can cause deadly hepatitis-B-related liver disease.
It is highly contagious and mainly transmitted from infected mothers to their babies, through unprotected sex or contaminated needles.
Yet despite a test being available since the 1970s just a fifth of infected Britons have been diagnosed.
It is less common in the UK than other parts of the world, but people originally from high-risk countries, drug users and those who have unprotected sex with multiple sexual partners are most at risk.