Hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes an endemic infection that affects nearly 2 billion patients worldwide. It is one of the leading causes of liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and liver transplantation (LT). Recurrence of HBV infection after LT is due to specific HBV-host genome interactions. Although hepatitis B immunoglobulin treatment constituted the backbone of HBV recurrence, use...

A family of antigens, referred to collectively as e antigen (eAg), has been detected in sera of some individuals with liver disease who test positive for hepatitis B surface antigen. Studies on eAg partially purified by affinity chromatography on insolubilized antibodies to eAg revealed the following: (i) eAg has the physicochemical and immunologic properties of an immunoglobulin, predominantly...

background: hepatitis b is one of the most important etiologic factors of acute and chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver and hepatocellular carcinoma. the best preventive method is vaccination. the aim of the study was to evaluate the immunization rate against hepatitis b in medical health personnel. materials and methods: this study was conducted on 331 health care workers employed in pub...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity in pregnant Ghanaian women. METHODS We surveyed 1,500 pregnant women in Eastern region of Ghana. Direct interviews were performed by trained nurses using standardized questionnaires. Pregnant women were screened for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hep...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is endemic among adults in the U.S. territory of Guam (1,2). Perinatal HBV transmission, which occurs at birth from an infected mother to her newborn infant, is a major mode of HBV transmission and maintains HBV endemicity (3). Approximately 90% of HBV-infected infants will develop chronic HBV infection, and approximately 25% of those will die prematurely from ...

Hepatitis A virus-specific BSC-1 cells were used for the detection of serum immunoglobulins to hepatitis A virus by indirect immunofluorescence. Of 150 serum samples tested, specific immunoglobulin M was detected only in patients with serologically confirmed acute hepatitis A, while specific immunoglobulin G was detected in patients with acute or past clinical hepatitis A as well as many patien...