Chronic active hepatitis in intravenous drug abusers may be delta agent infection associated.

Since the delta agent was first identified by Rizzetto and his colleagues in 1977 there has been much speculation regarding its nature and significance. The delta agent appears to be an RNA virus which is dependent on hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) for its replication (Rizzetto et al, 1980). Chronic HBsAg carriers appear to be most at risk of developing delta infection (Smedile et al, 1981). Chronic delta infection has been shown to be associated with progressive liver disease (Rizzetto et al, 1977). In order to determine whether such liver disease was related to the delta agent per se or to the co-existant hepatitis B virus (HBV) we performed liver biopsies on twenty-seven parenteral drug abusers who had serum tested for delta antigen and antidelta antibody. We report here the histological findings in those who were delta positive and those who were delta negative.